This new volume features the studied anatomical details of different parts of 100 wild grass species and provides a comprehensive overview of existing knowledge. Each of the three sections of the volume (leaf grass, culm, and caryopses) discusses and illustrates the diagnostic histological features, along with statistical analyses on the quantitative and qualitative data. The descriptions of these grasses, particularly those growing in the grasslands of the Panchmahal and Dahod districts of India, are supplemented with microphotographs and keys for the taxa concentrate upon diagnostic characters above the rank of genus, which will be helpful for the easy identification of the grasses, even in their vegetative stages before flowering. The cluster analysis uses the statistical analysis program Minitab for each part on the basis of the diagnostic features. In this volume, readers will be able to easily identify the grass species based on the anatomical features described here. The volume will be of great interest both to grass specialists and to generalists seeking state-of-the-art information on the diversity of grasses, the most ecologically and economically important of the families of flowering plants.

It is now over 50 years since the grasses of the British Isles were last treated to a book of their own, Hubbard's famous account of 1954, though two more editions were published in 1968 and 1984, with fairly limited changes. Enough has happened to the taxonomy of the family to justify a new BSBI Handbook. Hubbard's original account, still available after more than half a century, has been overtaken by events in an ever-developing taxonomic world and will not be revised again. This new Handbook therefore attempts to bridge the gap between the taxonomy of the 1980s and the new molecular phytogenies that are currently being explored, so that what is being offered is something that users will feel comfortable with (by departing no more than absolutely necessary from familiar taxonomy), but which hints at changes that may be afoot in the near future.

A detailed comparative study of the Gramineae family of plants, which includes cereals, grasses and bamboos.

Fundamental principles of crop production; Grain and cash crops; Forage crops.

This volume is the outcome of a modern phylogenetic analysis of the grass family based on multiple sources of data, in particular molecular systematic studies resulting from a concerted effort by researchers worldwide, including the author. In the classification given here grasses are subdivided into 12 subfamilies with 29 tribes and over 700 genera. The keys and descriptions for the taxa above the rank of genus are hierarchical, i.e. they concentrate upon characters which are deemed to be synapomorphic for the lineages and may be applicable only to their early-diverging taxa. Beyond the treatment of phylogeny and formal taxonomy, the author presents a wide range of information on topics such as the structural characters of grasses, their related functional aspects and particularly corresponding findings from the field of developmental genetics with inclusion of genes and gene products instrumental in the shaping of morphological traits (in which this volume appears unique within this book series); further topics addressed include the contentious time of origin of the family, the emigration of the originally shade-loving grasses out of the forest to form vast grasslands accompanied by the switch of many members to C4 photosynthesis, the impact of herbivores on the silica cycle housed in the grass phytoliths, the reproductive biology of grasses, the domestication of major cereal crops and the affinities of grasses within the newly circumscribed order Poales. This volume provides a comprehensive overview of existing knowledge on the Poaceae (Gramineae), with major implications in terms of key scientific challenges awaiting future research. It certainly will be of interest both for the grass specialist and also the generalist seeking state-of-the-art information on the diversity of grasses, the most ecologically and economically important of the families of flowering plants.