WHAT IS A GRASS? 



F all the world's flowering plants, the grasses are 

 undoubtedly the most important to man. They con- 

 tribute tremendously to the earth's green mantle of 

 vegetation; they are the source of the principal 

 foods of man and his domestic animals. Without 

 the grasses, agriculture would be virtually im- 

 possible: grain, sugar, syrup, spice, paper, per- 

 fume, pasture, oil and timber, and a thousand other 

 items of daily use are products of various grasses. They hold the 

 hills, plains and mountains against the destructive erosive forces of 

 wind and water. In the end, they form the sod that covers the sleep- 

 ing dead. 



Despite the fact that the grasses are so important to \is, we usually 

 know little about them. Why? Because we think that "All grasses 

 are ahke," or "They are too 

 hard to tell apart." But neither 

 statement is true. There are 

 over five thousand "kinds" or 

 species of grasses in the world 

 and fourteen hundred of these 

 are found in the United States 

 alone. This book contains de- 

 scriptions and pictures of over 

 three himdred of the more 

 common grasses of our coun- 

 try. While many are super- 

 ficially similar, they all have 

 good individual marks of recog- 

 nition. Nobody would at a 

 second glance, for example, 

 confuse foxtail and corn, or 

 quackgrass and oats, or Sudan 

 grass and barley, yet these are 

 all grasses, members of one 

 natural family, the GRAMINE- 

 AE, or grass family. 



HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE GRASS FAMILY 



The grasses and their alUes are all members of the great group of 

 flowering plants which we call the MONOCOTYLEDONS. The mem- 

 bers of this group are alike in having one seed leaf, parallel-veined 

 leaves (with few exceptions), and stems in which the vascular bimdles 

 are scattered in the pith. Among the Monocotyledons, members of 

 three famiUes of plants have a "grasslike" appearance and may be 

 confused. These are the grasses (Gramineae), the sedges (Cyperac- 

 eae). and the rushes (Juncaceae). A Httle study of the following key 

 and pictures will show how to separate them quickly and surely. 



Grasses are easy to recognize. Here 

 are some common ones. 1. Floret of 

 porcupine grass (Stipa). 2. Spikelet 

 and panicle of timothy (Phleum). 

 3. Branchlet with spikelets of John- 

 son grass (Sorghum). 4. Floret and 

 spikelet of Kentucky bluegrass 

 (Poo). 5. Spikelet of wheat (Triti- 

 eum). 6. Spikelet of proso millet 

 (Panicum). 7. Spikelets of oats 

 (Aveng). 



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