Etymological Dictionary of Grasses

As employed here the term grass applies only to species included in the Poaceae, one of the largest families of flowering plants. However, the word is often applied to any herbaceous plant with long, narrow leaves. A similar view was adopted by the Ancients. The Greeks applied the words poa, poe and agrostis to herbaceous plants in general and the Romans employed the words gramen and herba in a similar sense. In both cultures, unique names were applied to species of economic or special s- n...