1. Cereal Poaceae

2. 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

3. 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

4. Cereals 30,000 yrs ago paleolithic people collected seeds. Still followed by aborigines of Australia Delta of Nile and fertile Cresent – 8000 - 7000 BC Wide spread in Mediterranean basin, Western Asia and Western Europe – 4000 yrs

5. 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.

8. 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.

14. 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.

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