Name: Poaceae
Alternative Name: Gramineae
Meaning of Name:
Poaceae, from New Latin, from Ancient Greek πόα (póa, ‘fodder’) + Latin -āceae (the feminine plural of -āceus, ‘resembling’, a suffix used to form the taxonomic family names of plants, algae, bacteria, and fungi)
Gramineae, from Latin stem of gramen (‘grass’) + -eae (feminine plural suffix used to form adjectives, a suffix used to form the names of taxonomic tribes of plants, algae and fungi)
Common Name:
The grass family
Botanical Information:
Poaceae, or the grass family, has some 789 genera and 12,000 species and is found on every continent except Antarctica.
Many species of high economic value belong to this family, such as cereals, pasture grasses, lawn grasses, bamboo, sugarcane, lemongrasses and citronella.
One defining characteristic of Poaceae concerns their method of growth — plants elongate by cell division at the base rather than the top. Grasses are an important food source for many animals, and this growth habit allows them to be regularly grazed without long-term damage.
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