Reproductive Versatility in the Grasses

An authoritative guide to current problems in the world's most important plant families including cereals, the major forages, amenity grasses and those able to stabilize desert margins. After dealing with a computerized approach to grass taxonomy, the book considers in detail the grass spikelet. Thereafter, it examines fertilization, apomixis, and the structure of grass populations. The helpful role of grasses in reversing the trend toward desertification is also considered. The book then examines how molecular biology and tissue culture can be used with grass pollens to mitigate hay fever. Finally, the book seeks to identify some of the current major themes and key issues in grass research.

This 1990 text brings together a detailed review by acknowledged authorities of grass reproductive biology. Essential to contemporary awareness of grasses is an understanding of their role in sustaining ecologically fragile environments, and the relative importance of annual and perennial reproduction is examined here.