Cereal Poaceae

Cereals Genetically – originated from Asia, Central and South America and Africa. Good crop: –Palatibility –Quantity satisfaction –Nutritional value –Digestibity –Toxic property –Seasonal availabilty –Storage life –Preparation requirement –presentation

Cereals Named after Ceres, the Roman Goddess of agriculture Poaceae members Grain is a fruit – caryopsis 70% of Earth’s farmland – feeding humans and animals Three major categories –Major cereal –Minor cereal –Wild cereal Pseudocereal – non-poaceae members

Cereals 30,000 yrs ago paleolithic people collected seeds. Still followed by aborigines of Australia Delta of Nile and fertile Cresent – BC Wide spread in Mediterranean basin, Western Asia and Western Europe – 4000 yrs

Vegetative Vegetatively, grasses have several features. –The stems are round in cross section, the internodes are hollow, the nodes are solid, –the leaves are flat and 2-ranked, –the bases of the leaves have an open sheath that encircles the stem, and t –here is often a ligule present at the juncture of the sheath and the leaf blade.

Inflorescence The inflorescences of grasses also have distinctive characteristics. –The basic unit of an inflorescence is a spikelet, which contains 1 or more flowers. –At the base of the spikelet are 2 bracts called glumes. –The spikelets can be arranged in panicles, racemes, spikes, or other types.

Poaceae The flowers of Poaceae are small, lack petals, and are pollinated by wind. The 2 sepals are modified into lodicules. There are 3 stamens that hang down and the anthers shed pollen into the wind. The syncarpous gynoecium has 2 carpels, the ovary is superior, the styles are feather- like to catch pollen from the wind, and the ovary is 1-locular with 1 basal ovule.

Poaceae (The grass family) Caryopsis - A one-seeded dry indehiscent fruit (achene) with the thin pericarp adherent to the seed.