Its Platonic! (not a serious story)

reminder

Grasses have that are hollow except at the and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks. The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath. The leaf grows from the base of the blade, an adaptation allowing it to cope with frequent grazing.

such as and where grasses are dominant are estimated to constitute 40.5% of the land area of the , excluding and . Grasses are also an important part of the vegetation in many other habitats, including , and .

Though they are commonly called "grasses", groups such as the , and fall outside this family. The rushes and sedges are related to the Poaceae, being members of the , but the seagrasses are members of order . However, all of them belong to the group of plants

Grasses may be or, generally with the following characteristics (the image gallery can be used for reference): The of grasses, called , are usually cylindrical (more rarely flattened, but not 3-angled) and are hollow, plugged at the , where the leaves are attached. Grass are nearly always alternate and distichous (in one plane), and have parallel veins,  Each leaf is differentiated into a lower sheath hugging the stem and a blade with entire (i.e., smooth) margins.  The leaf blades of many grasses are hardened with , which discourage grazing animals; some, such as , are sharp enough to cut human skin. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs called the lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath.: 11 

of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in , each having one or more florets.  The spikelets are further grouped into . The part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two (or sometimes fewer) at the base, called , followed by one or more florets.: 13  A floret consists of the flower surrounded by two bracts, one external—the —and one internal—the . The flowers are usually — being an important exception—and mainly or wind-pollinated, although insects occasionally play a role. The is reduced to two scales, called ,  that expand and contract to spread the lemma and palea; these are generally interpreted to be modified sepals. The of grasses is a , in which the seed coat is fused to the fruit wall.  A is a leafy shoot other than the first shoot produced from the seed.

Grass blades grow at the base of the blade and not from elongated stem tips. This low growth point evolved in response to grazing animals and allows grasses to be or regularly without severe damage to the plant.

Three general classifications of growth habit present in grasses: bunch-type (also called caespitose), , and . The success of the grasses lies in part in their morphology and growth processes and in part in their physiological diversity. There are both and grasses, referring to the photosynthetic pathway for carbon fixation. The C4 grasses have a photosynthetic pathway, linked to specialized , which allows for increased , rendering them better adapted to hot, arid environments.

The C3 grasses are referred to as "cool-season" grasses, while the C4 plants are considered "warm-season" grasses.

Annual cool-season – , , annual bluegrass (annual meadow grass, ), andPerennial cool-season – orchard grass (cocksfoot, ), fescue ( spp.), and perennial ryegrass ()Annual warm-season – , , andPerennial warm-season – , , and .

Although the C4 species are all in the (see diagram above), it seems that various forms of C4 have arisen some twenty or more times, in various subfamilies or genera. In the genus for example, one species (A. longifolia) is C3 but the approximately 300 other species are C4. As another example, the whole tribe of , which includes , , , "", and , is C4. Around 46 percent of grass species are C4 plants.

The name Poaceae was given by in 1895,: 7  based on the tribe Poeae described in 1814 by , and the type genus described in 1753 by . The term is derived from the Ancient Greek .