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In the grass family, a grain (narrowly defined) is a caryopsis, a fruit with its wall fused on to the single seed inside, belonging to a cereal such as wheat, maize, or rice. More broadly, in agronomy and commerce, seeds or fruits from other plant families are called grains if they resemble cereal caryopses.
Harvesting a cereal with a combine harvester accompanied by a tractor and trailer. Cereal grains: (top) pearl millet, rice, barley (middle) sorghum, maize, oats (bottom) millet, wheat, rye, triticale. A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods.
It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and pasture. The latter are commonly referred to collectively as grass. With around 780 genera and around 12,000 species, [4] the Poaceae is the fifth-largest plant family, following the Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, Fabaceae and Rubiaceae. [5]
Millets are not only adapted to poor, dry infertile soils, but they are also more reliable under these conditions than most other grain crops. [43] Millets, however, do respond to high fertility and moisture. On a per-hectare basis, millet grain production can be 2 to 4 times higher with use of irrigation and soil supplements.
The term grain is also used in a more general sense as synonymous with cereal (as in "cereal grains", which include some non-Poaceae). Considering that the fruit wall and the seed are intimately fused into a single unit, and the caryopsis or grain is a dry fruit , little concern is given to technically separating the terms fruit and seed in ...
Sorghum is the world's fifth-most important cereal crop after rice, wheat, maize, and barley. [10] Sorghum is typically an annual, but some cultivars are perennial. It grows in clumps that may reach over 4 metres (13 ft) high. The grain is small, 2 to 4 millimetres (0.08 to 0.2 in) in diameter.
Quinoa, a common pseudocereal. A pseudocereal or pseudograin is one of any non-grasses that are used in much the same way as cereals (true cereals are grasses).Pseudocereals can be further distinguished from other non-cereal staple crops (such as potatoes) by their being processed like a cereal: their seed can be ground into flour and otherwise used as a cereal.
Barley (Hordeum vulgare), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikelets and making it much easier to harvest. Its use then spread throughout Eurasia by 2000 BC ...