Grass

Grass, any plant of the family Gramineae. This group of mostly annual and perennial herbs has great economic importance: as a food source (cereal grass: wheat, rice, corn, rye, barley, and oats; hay and pasture plants, e.g., bluegrass and sorghum; sugarcane); in construction and thatching (bamboo and reed species); as raw material for paper and liquors. Grass-family plants, with their hollow or pithy jointed stems, are also instrumental in preventing erosion.