Trapped In Time 76 The Grass Introduces Itself Part 1

Earlier, Aarvin was telling them about the neem tree a native of the sub-continent. But he stopped midway saying why he should he impart the information? They should ask the tree to give information about itself. Chris quoted an old saying of hearing something from the horse's mouth. To which Tina had 's mouth but the tree's mouth via the talking chip that answered all the questions asked it.

Their 4 flying cars appeared as they left the Cafeteria. They hopped abroad and were soon on their way descending the mountainside, then flying above the treetops. Soon they came to an area where there was a clump of trees around a small lake. There were daffodils growing beside the lake. It was a beautiful picture. The scene was completed with the chirping of the birds as they flew from branches of one tree to another or flew down to drink water at the lake. They could also see a huge group of b.u.t.terflies, and a few squirrels too.

The 4 cars came down glided towards the gra.s.s and soon hovered above the gra.s.s. Zen wondered what sort of fuel was being used by the flying cars, it must be environment-friendly, as the cars did not seem to emit any smoke.

"If we ask the cars some questions will they answer?" inquired Zen.

"Yes you can ask and they are bound to answer," replied Aarvin. "I have brought you here that you can talk to the plants, the lake, the fish, the frogs and the trees as well as the birds."

"I am sure you will find a few animals to talk to like the rabbit and squirrel."

"But I think we must first ask the gra.s.s for permission to land the cars and then sit on it, talk to it," Aarvin added.

Taking a cue from Aarvin's words, the children had sought permission from the gra.s.s to land their cars on it and to come out and spend some time sitting on the lovely gra.s.s. Surprisingly, the gra.s.s did not object and gave them permission.

Zen asked the gra.s.s, "May we ask you questions about yourself, will you answer?"

The gra.s.s replies, "I will not be able to answer everything. But I will answer whatever I have been programmed to answer."

Zoya, "Can you tell us something about yourself?"

The Gra.s.ses are covered under the family of Poaceae or Gramineae. It is a large family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly and collectively called as gra.s.s. Poaceae includes the cereal gra.s.ses, bamboos and the gra.s.ses of natural gra.s.sland and cultivated lawns and pasture. Gra.s.ses have stems that are hollow except at the nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks. The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath. With around 780 genera and around 12,000 species, Poaceae are the fifth-largest plant family, following the Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, Fabaceae, and Rubiaceae.

The gra.s.s family is one of the most widely distributed and abundant groups of plants on your Earth. They are found on every continent including Antarctica as hair gra.s.s on the Antarctic Peninsula. Gra.s.slands such as savannah and prairie where gra.s.ses are dominant are estimated to const.i.tute 40.5% of the land area of the Earth, excluding Greenland and Antarctica. Gra.s.ses are also an important part of the vegetation in many other habitats, including wetlands, forests, and tundra. The Poaceae are the most economically important plant family, providing staple foods from domesticated cereal crops such as maize, wheat, rice, barley, and millet as well as forage, building materials (bamboo, thatch, straw) and fuel (ethanol).

Seagra.s.ses, rushes, and sedges fall outside this family though they are commonly called "gra.s.ses".

Gra.s.ses include some of the most versatile plant life-forms became widespread toward the end of the Cretaceous period, and fossilized dinosaur dung (coprolites) have been found to contain a variety that includes gra.s.ses which are related to modern rice and bamboo. These recent findings of gra.s.s-like phytoliths in Cretaceous dinosaur coprolites have pushed their existence to date back to 66 million years ago.

Gra.s.ses have adapted to lush rain forests, dry deserts, cold mountains, and even intertidal habitats, and are currently the most widespread plant type; the gra.s.s is a valuable source of food and energy for all sorts of wildlife and organics.

Gra.s.ses may be annual or perennial herbs, with the following characteristics The stems of gra.s.ses, called culms, are usually cylindrical and are hollow, plugged at the nodes, where the leaves are attached. Gra.s.s leaves are nearly always alternate and distichous (in one plane), and have parallel veins. Each leaf is differentiated into a lower sheath hugging the stem and a blade with entire (i.e., smooth) margins. The leaf blades of many kinds of gra.s.s are hardened with silica phytoliths, which discourage grazing animals; some, such as sword gra.s.s, are sharp enough to cut human skin. A membranous appendage or fringe of hairs called the ligule lies at the junction between sheath and blade, preventing water or insects from penetrating into the sheath.

Flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in spikelets, each having one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes. The part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two (or sometimes fewer) bracts at the base, called glumes, followed by one or more florets. A floret consists of the flower surrounded by two bracts, one external—the lemma—and one internal—the palea. The flowers are usually hermaphroditic—maize being an important exception—and mainly wind-pollinated, although insects occasionally play a role. The perianth is reduced to two scales, called lodicules, that expand and contract to spread the lemma and palea; these are generally interpreted to be modified sepals. This complex structure can be seen in wheat (Tritic.u.m aestivum) spikelet. The fruit of gra.s.ses is a caryopsis, in which the seed coat is fused to the fruit wall. A tiller is a leafy shoot other than the first shoot produced from the seed.

Gra.s.s blades grow at the base of the blade and not from elongated stem tips. This low growth point evolved in response to grazing animals and allows gra.s.ses to be grazed or mown regularly without severe damage to the plant.

The success of the gra.s.ses lies in part in their morphology and growth processes and in part in their physiological diversity. Most of the gra.s.ses divide into two physiological groups, using the C3 and C4 photosynthetic pathways for carbon fixation.

The C4 gra.s.ses are "warm season" gra.s.ses. These have a photosynthetic pathway, linked to specialized Kranz leaf anatomy, which allows for increased water use efficiency, rendering them better adapted to hot, arid environments and those lacking in carbon dioxide.

The C3 gra.s.ses are referred to as "cool-season" gra.s.ses.

Annual cool-season – wheat, rye, annual bluegra.s.s (annual meadowgra.s.s, Poa annua), and oat.

Perennial cool-season – orchardgra.s.s (c.o.c.ksfoot, Dactylis glomerata), fescue (Festuca spp.), Kentucky bluegra.s.s and perennial ryegra.s.s (Lolium perenne).

Annual warm-season – maize, sudangra.s.s, and pearl millet

Perennial warm-season – big bluestem, Indiangra.s.s, Bermudagra.s.s and switchgra.s.s.