ABSTRACT
Identification Criteria of Grasses .............................................................. 2 Grass Biology............................................................................................ 2 Habit ................................................................................................. 3 Inflorescence .................................................................................... 3 Panicle ..................................................................................... 4 Raceme .................................................................................... 4 Spike ........................................................................................ 4 Guide to Taxonomic Ranks ....................................................................... 4 Family .............................................................................................. 4 Subfamily ......................................................................................... 5 Tribe ................................................................................................. 5 Genus ................................................................................................ 5 Species .............................................................................................. 6 Keywords .................................................................................................. 6 References ................................................................................................. 6
Grasses comes from Old High German word “gras” – generally used to describe any suitable for livestock grazing and they evolved in late cretaceous era (Stromberg, 2011; Prasad et al., 2011). They are one of the largest groups of the plants. Grasses are uniformly distributed on all continents and in all climatic zones. They are cosmopolitan in distribution with important centers of diversity in Brazil, Central North America, Southerneast Africa, and Australia and occupy an enormous. It is surprise, but fact is that the grass species (Gramineae members) are more in Arctic regions than the other family. Even they grow in range of habitats (Clayton and Renvoize, 1986; Osborne et al., 2011), for example, grow in marshy area,
desert, water, water logged area, etc. Grass species are ubiquitous on earth, occurring in ecosystems on every continent and when they form grasslands, they have a major influence on climate through the cycling of carbon and water between soils and the atmosphere.
