Bamboo Is a Grass, and So Is Wheat
Grass is a plant with narrow leaves. The family includes the world's tallest plant of its kind and nearly all its staple crops.
Grass is a plant with narrow leaves growing from the base. The family is enormous and strange in its membership: wheat, rice, maize, barley, oats, sugar cane and bamboo are all grasses, so most of what humanity eats comes from one plant family. Some bamboos grow over thirty metres tall and can gain nearly a metre in a day. In British slang, to *grass* on someone is to inform on them.
- A narrow-leaved plant. *Mow the grass.*
- A lawn. *Keep off the grass.*
- To inform (British slang). *He grassed on them.*
- Grassroots — ordinary members. *Grassroots support.*
- Grasses — the family. *Cereals are grasses.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | grass | Long grass. |
| Plural | grasses | Ornamental grasses. |
| Verb | grass | He grassed. |
| Adjective | grassy | A grassy bank. |
| Old English | græs | Grass. |
- The grass needs cutting.Lawn.
- Bamboo is technically a grass.Botany.
- He grassed to the police.British slang.
Grasses you eat
- Wheat, rice, maize — the three biggest staple crops on earth
- Barley, oats, rye, millet, sorghum — all grasses
- Sugar cane — a giant grass
- Bamboo — the tallest, and edible when young
- Roughly half of all calories eaten by humans come from grasses
Old English *græs*, from a Germanic root related to *grow* and *green*.
Is bamboo a tree?
No. It is a grass, despite reaching over thirty metres in some species.
Why does grass mean to inform in Britain?
The origin is disputed. One theory links it to rhyming slang, grasshopper for copper, meaning a police officer.