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SIMILARITY TO OTHER PLANTS
“The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and the goodliness thereof is as the flower
of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people
is grass.” -- Isaiah 40:6-7.
I. Grasses are typical monocots
Monocot Features of grasses:
II. Comparison to the “grass-like” families
Three common families with flowers parts chaffy and bract-like:
Grasses
Gramineae
Sedges
Cyperaceae
Rushes
Juncaceae
Stems
nodes conspicuous
“jointed”
round
nodes inconspicuous
3-angled
nodes inconspicuous
round
Leaves
2-ranked
3-ranked
2-ranked
Sheath
mostly open
closed
open
Ligule
usually prominent
absent
absent/present
Perianth
lodicules
bristles
3 sepals
3 petals
Bracts below
fruit
2 (lemma & palea)
1
6 (3 sepals, 3 petals)
Fruit
caryopsis
1 seed
achene
1 seed
capsule
many seeds
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STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What are monocots?
2. Why are grasses considered to be typical monocots?
3. List the higher level classification of the grass family (division through family).
4. What other two orders and families are morphologically most similar to the grasses? What are their common and
scientific names?
5. Describe several ways to tell grasses from these other groups.
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CHARACTERISTICS OF IMPORTANT RANGE AND WILDLIFE GRASSES
I think the prairies will die without grass finding a voice. Its democracy may be against it. Prairie grass never
seems to know anybody. – William A. Quayle, The Prairie and the Sea (1905).
I. Introduction
A. Duration
B. Season of growth
3. Cool Season
2. Warm Season
3. Photosynthetic pathway
b. Light Reaction
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b. Dark Reaction
PGA = phosphoglyceric acid
RuDP = ribulose diphosphate
Glyc = glycolic acid
peroxisome = tiny organelle hanging around in the mesophyll
OAA = oxaloacetic acid
PEP = phosphenolpyruvic acid
C3 (Calvin-Benson) and C4 (Hatch-Slack) Cycles
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c. Adaptations and Pitfalls
1) Cool season grasses
2) Warm season grasses
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4. Anatomical differences are associated with each pathway.
5. Distributions of subfamilies.
6. Correlation to habitats
7. Kranz and Non-Kranz Syndromes: Correlation of photosynthesis, biochemical pathways, internal anatomy,
distribution, and ecology.