Characteristic morphological features

Although grasses superficially resemble other plants, most notably the rushes (family Juncaceae) and sedges (family Cyperaceae), these similarities are far outweighed by the numerous less-conspicuous differences in the structure and arrangement of reproductive parts, pollen development and structure, chromosome structure, and embryology.

Grasses are perennial or annual and usually terrestrial and free-standing; they are rarely vines or aquatics. The root system consists not of a taproot, as in many dicotyledons, but of fine, fibrous roots. Corms and bulbs are sometimes present and prop roots may develop from the lower nodes or joints of the stem, as in corn. Grass stems, sometimes called culms, are herbaceous or woody, and they range from about 2 centimetres (0.79 inch) in some grasses of severe climates (Aciachne pulvinata) to 40 metres (131 feet) in height and 30 centimetres in diameter in bamboos (species of Dendrocalamus).

As is true of other monocotyledons, woodiness or lignification does not develop from the annual production of lignified layers of tissue as in broad-leaved trees of such dicotyledons as oaks and maples. Instead, blocks of tough, fibrous cells associated with the xylem (water-conducting tissue), some lignification of the most common type of cells (parenchyma) in the stem, and silicification of the epidermis (outermost layer of cells) provide the structural rigidity of bamboo stems.

The stems of grasses range from fully erect to prostrate. They are solitary to densely clumped, as in the so-called bunch grasses. Many grasses produce horizontal stems, either below ground (rhizomes) or above ground (stolons).

The internodes, or stem regions between the nodes, are usually round in cross section and either hollow or filled with a spongy pith. What makes the grasses unusual, however, is their method of growth: they elongate by means of cell division and enlargement at the basal point of growth.

Some of the structural strength required for grass plants to stand erect comes from the leaves, particularly the leaf sheaths. Arising at nodes and encircling the internode above, sheaths counter the tendency for the internode to bend at the basal growing point, where it is weakest.

The other major part of the grass leaf is the blade. Grass leaves are borne singly at the nodes and, with minor exception, are arranged in two vertical ranks. Thus, a leaf, and most conspicuously its blade, is positioned directly under the blade two nodes above it. Structurally, this means that the point of leaf initiation alternates with each node; the leaf sheath grows to encircle the stem and overlap when the two points meet. Grass leaf blades are usually long and narrow, with parallel margins, but occasionally are in the shape of a lance, egg, arrow, or heart. The blades may be shorter than one centimetre or less than five metres in the larger bamboos. In grasses of such arid areas as the desert, the leaves may roll up to form long, thin tubes, thereby reducing surface area and water loss.

The leaf veins (vascular bundles that transport water and nutrients) run parallel to one another. Special cells in the outermost cell layer of grass leaves contain silica bodies, which range from saddle-shaped to crescent- or dumbbell-shaped. These shapes are often used to distinguish large groups of grasses from one another. While silica bodies occur in the epidermis of other monocots, such as sedges, they do not show the great variability of form found among the grasses.

At the junction of leaf sheath and blade, designated as the collar of the leaf, and on the side facing the stem, grass leaves bear a ligule, a small flange or ring of hairs, depending on the species, that may have evolved to prevent the entry of water into the leaf sheath. At the base of the blade, in some grasses, especially members of the subfamily Bambusoideae, the leaf is constricted and resembles a stalk or petiole. This pseudopetiole moves the leaf downward or upward at night, depending on the species.

The most significant variation in the internal structure of grass leaves involves anatomical differences associated with two photosynthetic pathways: the pathway that synthesizes a four-carbon (C-4) compound and that which synthesizes a three-carbon (C-3) compound. The chief distinction between these two pathways is the presence of specialized, thick-walled photosynthetic cells located in sheaths surrounding vascular bundles in C-4 plants. These cells participate in the mechanism for assimilation of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into a four-carbon compound. Hence, plants with these features are called C-4 plants, as opposed to C-3 plants, which take up carbon dioxide into a three-carbon compound.

It is important to understand that both C-3 and C-4 plants use the C-3 route of CO₂ fixation, the ultimate aim of which is the synthesis of sugars. In the C-4 cycle, however, there are additional steps before the CO₂ is fixed into a three-carbon compound. In C-4 plants, carbon dioxide is fixed into a four-carbon compound (oxaloacetate) in the mesophyll and reduced to malate or aspartate, which is then transferred to the sheaths surrounding the vascular bundle. Here CO₂ is removed from the malate or aspartate (decarboxylation) and refixed in the C-3 cycle, which produces 3-phosphoglycerate, a three-carbon compound.

Although the C-4 cycle uses more energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), it is advantageous in hot tropical conditions. Under such conditions, plants tend to close their stomata when it is hot or dry, decreasing the flow of carbon dioxide into the bundle sheaths. The mesophyll readily fixes the carbon dioxide, which is concentrated as malate or aspartate in the mesophyll and is removed to the bundle sheaths, where the C-3 cycle proceeds. The higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the bundle sheaths facilitates the C-3 cycle, enabling the tropical plants to grow faster than their C-3 relatives.

C-4 plants are more efficient at taking up carbon dioxide than are C-3 plants and tend to fare better in hot or dry climates. This climatic association of the C-4 syndrome is consistent with the fact that all members of subfamily Chloridoideae and most of the Panicoideae, the two large tropical subfamilies, are C-4 plants. A very small number of Arundinoideae are C-4 plants, while all the Bambusoideae and Pooideae are C-3 plants. The C-4 pathway represents an evolutionary specialization that has evolved in about 10 families of flowering plants and is particularly common in the grasses.

The primary inflorescence of grasses is the spikelet, a small structure consisting of a short axis, the rachilla, to which are attached chaffy, two-ranked, closely overlapping scales. There are three kinds of scales. The lowermost, called glumes, are usually two in number, and they enclose some or all of the other scales. The other scales, the lemma and the palea, occur in pairs. Generally the lemma is larger than the palea, which is hidden between the lemma and the spikelet axis. The lemma and palea surround and protect the flower, and all three of these structures form the floret. Grass spikelets then simply consist of usually 2 glumes and 1 to about 50 florets, depending on the species.

Spikelet structure is highly useful in the identification of grass species and genera, and it defines some large groups of grasses. Rice and its relatives, for example, produce spikelets without glumes. Spikelets of the Panicoideae contain two florets, a sterile or pollen-producing floret below a fruit-producing, and sometimes also a pollen-producing, floret. The entire spikelet breaks away from the plant as a unit for fruit dispersal. In contrast, the Pooideae often have more than two florets per spikelet—florets that do not produce fruit are located at the top rather than at the bottom of the spikelet—and the individual florets separate from one another for dispersal. Many bamboos develop pseudospikelets by the addition of scalelike structures at the base of the spikelet. These resemble glumes in not covering a flower, and they are thought to be leaves reduced to very small sheaths. Above these additional scales are the parts of a normal spikelet.

Special spikelet structures aid in the dispersal and establishment of grass seeds. The backs or tips of glumes and lemmas may develop one or more awns, needlelike structures that may catch on animal fur. The base of the spikelet may be hardened into a pointed, hairy callus. The callus is usually best developed in spikelets with an awn that twists when atmospheric humidity changes. As the awn twists, it drills the spikelet into the soil. When atmospheric humidity changes again and the awn untwists, the spikelet is held in the ground by the callus hairs. This self-sowing may be repeated with each shift in humidity.

Spikelets are the units of the secondary grass inflorescence. All major inflorescence types occur in grasses, and a certain type or variant of that type is often characteristic of a species or group of species. In the wheats, for example, the spikelets are attached to a central axis without a stalk or pedicel. This kind of inflorescence also characterizes relatives of wheat, such as barley and rye. The bluegrasses of the genus Poa, in contrast, have a panicle inflorescence, with the spikelets borne on distinct pedicels.

Grass flowers are minute and highly simplified compared with the flowers of most other plants. Hidden within the lemma and palea, they are evident only by the brief appearance of some of their parts during flowering. In place of the petals there are translucent structures called lodicules. They are two or three (rarely none or up to six) in number and too small to be seen well without magnification. They vary in shape, but all function similarly in that they swell rapidly when the flower is mature and force apart the lemma and palea. Opening of the floret makes possible exsertion of the anthers (pollen sacs) on their filaments and stigmas (the receptive surface for pollen) for exchange of pollen between individuals (cross-pollination).

Grass flowers are adapted for wind-pollination. There are no brightly coloured or strongly scented parts to attract animal pollinators, nor is there any nectar to reward animals for transporting pollen between flowers. Instead, there is an abundance of pollen contained in usually 3, less commonly as few as 1 or as many as 6, and exceptionally up to 120 (in Ochlandra), anthers. The smooth, lightweight pollen travels well on air currents, and two (less often three) feathery stigmas catch the airborne pollen. The stigmas of corn, collectively referred to as the silk, are unusual in two ways: there is only one stigma per flower, and they are very long. Pollen tubes must grow as long as 25 centimetres to reach the ovary. After pollen shedding and reception, the lodicules shrink and the floret closes to protect the developing fruit.

In more than 300 grass species, some of the florets do not open at flowering because they are confined (cleistogamous). Most commonly, retention of spikelets within leaf sheaths prevents their opening and enforces self-pollination, but in a few species, such as Amphicarpum purshii of the Atlantic coastal plain of North America, some of the spikelets are produced on stems that grow down into the soil. The common name of this plant, peanutgrass, reflects its habit of burying its own seed, but, unlike the peanut itself, peanutgrass burial begins before flowering.

One of the most unusual flowering phenomena occurs in many bamboos. All plants of a species flower at about the same time at lengthy intervals, and then the plants die. Cycles of about 30 and 60 years are known, and the longest cycle is 120 years in Asian Phyllostachys bambusoides. Individual aerial stems may live for much less time than their species cycle and will only flower at the end of the cycle when an inborn signal initiates the formation of inflorescences. Such gregarious flowering may oversaturate the food supply of frugivores (fruit-eating animals) and assure bamboo reproduction. This phenomenon, however, seriously affects the normal balance of nature. Animals dependent on bamboo vegetative growth, such as the panda, may lose a favoured food source entirely after a flowering episode. A glut of bamboo fruits may incite an explosion in populations of rodents that eat the fruits. For example, flowering of the muli, or terai, bamboo (Melocanna bambusoides) in its native habitat around the Bay of Bengal in cycles of mostly 30 to 35 years leads to disaster. With the death of the bamboo, an important building material is lost and the accumulation of the avocado-sized fruits promotes a rapid increase in rodent populations. Rodent overpopulations also lead to loss of human food supplies and epidemics of rodent-carried diseases.

Grass flowers may be bisexual (with both pollen and ovules) or unisexual. The flowers of wheat, barley, oats, and rye are bisexual; the flowers of corn are unisexual, although inflorescences for pollen (the tassle) and others for fruit (the ear) are on the same plant. The production of male or female gametes on separate individuals is rare in plants. The common buffalo grass (Buchloe dactyloides) of the American Great Plains is one of only 18 genera of grasses with this complete separation of pollen and fruit.

Grass fruits, also called grains or caryopses, are unusual among plants in that the fruit wall completely adheres to the single seed. Caryopses are generally dry. In some grasses, the fruit does not fuse with the seed coat, and in some bamboos the fruit is a berry since the fruit wall becomes juicy.

The seed itself consists of two major parts, endosperm and embryo. Endosperm is a starchy, storage tissue (popcorn is exploded endosperm). The embryo lies between the endosperm and fruit wall with the large scutellum facing the endosperm. The scutellum is thought to be a modified cotyledon, or seed leaf. In grasses this seed leaf never develops into a green structure but serves only to digest endosperm and transfer nutrients to the rest of the embryo. The remainder of the embryo is an axis with primordial shoot and root systems. The shoot system consists of the shoot apex and its embryonic leaves, which are covered by the coleoptile. The mesocotyl connects the shoot system to the point of attachment of the scutellum. The primary root, which is replaced by secondary, fibrous roots after germination, is covered by the coleorhiza (root sheath).

Evolution

There is no clear evidence for the geographic place of origin of the grasses. Some authorities have suggested that grasses evolved within or on the margins of tropical forests. As Bambusoideae generally grow in forests and retain primitive features in their flowers, they were possibly the first grasses. However, they may be the most primitive extant grasses, numerous specializations reveal considerable evolutionary advancement. From these forest dwellers an early offshoot, perhaps similar to modern Arundinoideae, extended into savannas and gave rise to, and was partially supplanted by, Chloridoideae and Panicoideae in the tropics and pooids at higher latitudes. Alternately pooidlike grasses may have come first, evolving on tropical mountains and spreading to plains and temperate regions.

The meagre fossil remains of grasses do little to resolve questions of the origin of the family, its geologic age, relationships with other monocots, and evolution within the family. The oldest records of grass pollen are from about 60 million years ago, during the middle of the Paleocene, but they did not become abundant until about 30 million years ago, near the beginning of the late Oligocene. The apparent upsurge of grasses likely stemmed from their coevolution with the then newly evolved groups of grazing animals and the aridification of the Earth’s surface due to the rain shadow created by new mountains and growth of polar icecaps.

Grasses have long been assumed to be closely related to sedges (family Cyperaceae) because they both are primarily herbaceous with long narrow leaves and minute wind-pollinated flowers borne in spikelets. Similarities between these two great families, however, most likely evolved as independent responses to the same environmental conditions. The closest extant relatives of grasses probably belong to a group of small families centred around the southern Pacific Ocean. One family in particular, the Joinvilleaceae, resembles grasses in some anatomical features of the leaves and embryos. Its flowers, however, have a well-developed perianth, and it lacks the other distinctive, easily recognizable features that mark grasses.

Current geographic distribution of grass subfamilies, tribes (groups of genera within subfamilies), and even some modern genera on all or most continents suggests that these groups evolved well before the Paleogene Period, roughly 65.5 to 23 million years ago, when continents had become sufficiently separated to prevent dispersal between them.

There are a number of reasons why so many genera and species of grasses exist today. In addition to the adaptations that make grasses ecologically successful, the grass spikelet has apparently been a competent means of protecting the flower, developing the fruit, and dispersing the seed. It has evolved into a myriad of forms by addition, loss, and modification of parts. Hybridization and polyploidy have undoubtedly spawned many grass species, as, for example, the wheats. Polyploidy and hybridization are usually linked because interspecific hybrids are often sterile, and fertility may be restored by chromosome doubling. An estimate of the incidence of polyploidy in the family, which is up to about 80 percent, indicates how frequently hybridization has taken place in grasses.