The Poales are a large order of flowering plants in the monocotyledons, and includes families of plants such as the grasses, bromeliads, and sedges. Sixteen plant families are currently recognized by botanists to be part of Poales.
There are over 190 vascular plant species on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. This figure does not include algae, mosses, and lichens, which are non-vascular plants. For an island so far north, this number of species constitutes an astonishing variety of plant life. Because of the harsh climate and the short growing season, all the plants are slow growing. They seldom grow higher than 10 cm (4 in)
Colpodium is a genus of plants in the grass family, native primarily to Asia but with a few species on certain mountains in Africa.
Setaria is a widespread genus of plants in the grass family. The name is derived from the Latin word seta, meaning "bristle" or "hair", which refers to the bristly spikelets.
Sporobolus is a nearly cosmopolitan genus of plants in the grass family. The name Sporobolus means "seed-thrower", and is derived from Ancient Greek word σπόρος (spóros), meaning "seed", and the root of βάλλειν (bállein) "to throw", referring to the dispersion of seeds. Members of the genus are usually called dropseeds or sacaton grasses. They are typical prairie and savanna plants, occurring in other types of open habitat in warmer climates. At least one species is threatened with extinction, and another is extinct.
Cinna is a small genus of grasses known by the common name woodreeds. There are only four known species but they are quite widespread in the Americas and northern Eurasia.
Pleuropogon is a genus of Arctic and North American plants in the grass family known generally as semaphore grass.
Perotis is a genus of Asian, African, and Australian plants in the grass family.
Phippsia is a genus of Arctic and alpine plants in the grass family.
Arthropogon is a genus of South American and Caribbean bunchgrass plants in the grass family.
Arctagrostis is a genus of Arctic and Subarctic plants in the grass family, native to colder parts of Europe, Asia, and North America.
Catabrosa is a small but widespread genus of plants in the grass family native to temperate areas of Eurasia, the Americas, and a few places in Africa.
Distichlis is a genus of American and Australian plants in the grass family. Plants in this genus are dioecious, have rhizomes or stolons, and have conspicuously distichous leaves.
Gouinia is a genus of Latin American plants in the grass family.
Coleataenia is a genus of grasses in the tribe Paniceae of the family Poaceae. Until recently this genus was part of Panicum. In 2010, Zuloaga, Scataglini, & Morrone proposed the transfer of the Panicum sections Agrostoidea and Tenera to the new genus, Sorengia. However, that same year, because one of the new species' synonyms was in the valid genus Coleataenia, Robert J. Soreng determined that Sorengia was not a valid name for the new genus and re-published it as Coleataenia.
Olyra latifolia, commonly known as carrycillo, is a species of bamboo in the grass family Poaceae. It occurs in Mexico, Central and South America, and in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a common species, up to 5 m (16 ft) tall, growing prolifically in rainforests, particularly near the margins.
Zizania latifolia, known as Manchurian wild rice, is the only member of the wild rice genus Zizania native to Asia. It is used as a food plant. Both the stem and grain are edible. Gathered in the wild, Manchurian wild rice was an important grain in ancient China. A wetland plant, Manchurian wild rice is now very rare in the wild, and its use as a grain has completely disappeared in Asia, though it continues to be cultivated for its stems. A measure of its former popularity is that the surname Jiǎng, one of the most common in China, derives from this crop.
Poa arctica, the Arctic bluegrass or Arctic meadow grass, is a species of flowering plant in the family Poaceae, with a subarctic circumpolar distribution, extending into the Rockies. Often a dominant species in the tundra, it responds positively to disturbance.
Eragrostis ciliaris, the gophertail lovegrass, is a species of grass. It is native to the Old World Tropics; nearly all of Africa, Madagascar, other Indian Ocean islands, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Subcontinent, Myanmar, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines and a number of Pacific islands, and has been introduced to the New World Tropics and Subtropics, from the southern United States to Argentina, the Caribbean, and other Pacific islands. Its seeds are edible and nutritious, but quite small and difficult to harvest and handle, so it is usually regarded as a famine food.
