grass family

American  

noun

1. the large plant family Gramineae (or Poaceae), characterized by mostly herbaceous but sometimes woody plants with hollow and jointed stems, narrow sheathing leaves, petalless flowers borne in spikelets, and fruit in the form of seedlike grain, and including bamboo, sugarcane, numerous grasses, and cereal grains such as barley, corn, oats, rice, rye, and wheat.

---

Example Sentences

Many of the world's key food and energy crops belong to the grass family and are often grown in drought-prone areas.

From BBC

Wheat belongs to the grass family, which contains some 8,000 species.

From Scientific American

But as unassuming as the grass family seems, it helps to both feed and build the world.

From New York Times

The plant is a member of the grass family whose oldest incarnation, flint, is represented in this particular plot.

From New York Times

Today, the grass family contains more than 10,000 species — that’s more species of grass than species of bird — and grasslands cover about a third of the planet’s landmasses.

From New York Times