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[[Image:Saltmarsh-Grass.JPG|thumb|right|270px|Natural vegetaton dominated by grasses]]

'''Grass''' is a common word that generally describes a [[monocotyledon]]ous green [[plant]] in the family [[Poaceae]]. True grasses include most plants grown as [[cereal]]s, for [[pasture]], and for [[lawn]]s. They include some more specialised crops such as [[lemongrass]], as well as many [[ornamental grass|ornamental]] plants, and some [[weed]]s. They also include plants often not considered to be grasses, such as [[bamboo]]s.

Grasses and grass-like plants have always been important to human beings. They provide the majority of food crops, and have numerous other uses, such as feeding animals, and for lawns. There are numerous minor uses, and grasses are familiar to most human cultures.

The term 'grass' is sometimes used to describe related plants in the rush ([[Juncaceae]]) and sedge ([[Cyperaceae]]) families, that resemble grass somewhat. It may also be used to describe other unrelated plants, sometimes of similar appearances to grass, with leaves rising vertically from the ground, and sometimes of dissimilar appearance.

[[Image:Grass covered house in Iceland 1972.jpg|thumb|right|270px|Grass covered house in Iceland]]

Plants that are commonly called grass, but are not true grasses include:

*[[Cannabis]] (more commonly known as marijuana)
*China grass, more commonly known as [[Ramie]] (''[[Boehmeria]] nivea''), a [[nettle]] grown for [[fiber|bast fibres]], in the family [[Urticaceae]]
*Ditch grass or Wigeon grass (''[[Ruppia]] maritima'') in the family [[Ruppiaceae]]
*Fish grass (''[[Cabomba]] caroliniana''), a freshwater aquatic
*[[Galium aparine|Goosegrass]] (''[[Galium aparine]]'')
*[[Mondo grass]] or Lily turf (''[[Ophiopogon japonicus]]''), an Asian ornamental ground cover
*Nut-grass or Nutgrass, a common lawn pest (''[[Cyperus rotundus]]'') in the family [[Cyperaceae]]
*[[Pepper grass]] (''[[Lipidium]]'' spp.) in the family [[Brassicaceae]]
*[[Cladium|Sawgrass]], abundant in sub-tropical marshlands (''[[Cladium]]'' spp.) in the family [[Cyperaceae]]
*[[Scurvy-grass]] (''Cochlearia'' species) in the family [[Brassicaceae]]
*[[Scurvy-grass Sorrel]] (''Oxalis enneaphylla'') in the family [[Oxalidaceae]]
*[[Seagrass]]es, including [[Eel grass]] (''Zostera'' spp.)
*[[Mimosa pudica|"Sleeping grass"]] (''Mimosa pudica''), a [[Fabaceae|legume]] (family Fabaceae) and lawn weed
*[[Xyridaceae]], known as the yellow-eyed grass family.

==In Fiction==
Grass plays a central role in two important science fiction catastrophe novels from the 1940s and 1950s, [[Ward Moore]]'s [[Greener Than You Think]], in which the world is slowly taken over by unstopable [[Bermuda Grass]], and [[John Christopher]]'s [[The Death of Grass]], in which a plague that kills off all forms of grass threatens the survival of the human race.

== See also ==
[[Image:Grass dsc08672-nevit.jpg|thumb|Germinating grass seedlings]]
{{commons|Grass}}
* [[Lawn]]
* [[Pasture]]
* [[Grassland]]

=='''References'''==
*Chapman, G.P. and W.E. Peat. 1992. An Introduction to the Grasses. CAB Internat., Oxon, UK.
*Cheplick, G.P. 1998. Population Biology of Grasses. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
* Milne, L. and M. Milne. 1967. ''Living Plants of the World''. Chaticleer Press, N.Y.
*Soderstrom, T.R., K.W. Hilu, C.S. Campbell, and M.E. Barkworth, eds. 1987. Grass Systematics and Evolution. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
* Went, Frits W. 1963. ''The Plants''. Time-Life Books, N.Y.

[[Category:Grasses]]