Flowers: Perfect or imperfect and the plants then monoecious or dioecious; reduced, basic unit a FLORET—a flower subtended by PALEA & LEMMA; perianth represented by LODICULES; anthers versatile; carpels 2 or 3, syncarpous; ovary superior, 1-locular with 1-basal ovule

Infloresc.: Spikelets grouped into panicles, racemes, or spikes, each spikelet has a RACHILLA as the central axis and 2 GLUMES at the base

Fruits: CARYOPSIS, achene with the pericarp fused to seed coat

Habit: Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes quite large (as the bamboos), forming bunches or with stolons or rhizomes, stems (CULMS) round in cross section, internodes hollow, nodes solid

Leaves: Alternate or basal, 2-ranked, simple, entire or finely toothed, linear, blades flat, sheathing at base with sheath open, a LIGULE often present at junction of blade and sheath

Family divided into 5 subfamilies and 19 tribes. You are NOT expected to learn these

Examples:

Andropogon gerardii (big bluestem)

Avena sativa (oats)

Bambusa (bamboo)

Digitaria (crab grass)

Elymus (wild rye)

Festuca (fescue)

Hordeum vulgare (barley)

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Zebrinus’

Oryza sativa (rice)

Panicum (panic grass, switchgrass)

Poa (bluegrass)

Saccharum officinarum (sugar cane)

Secale cereale (rye)

Sorghum bicolor (sorghum, milo)

Sporobolus heterolepis (prairie dropseed)

Triticum aestivum, T. durum (wheat)

Zea mays (maize, corn)

Zizania palustris (wild rice)