The Selfreport of Gramineae Family

By+Li+Bing

As the worlds forth largest division， the gramineae is the most widely distributed plant family， and also the plant family of the biggest economic value and the closest relation to human. What kind of origin and migration history does such a family have？ Lets listen to the self introduction of meadow grass， the representative plant of the gramineae.

The Gramineae Family Around The World

Im the meadow grass， you can find me easily in the lawn in northern China. The taxonomists classified me as gramineae family， in English， the word “family” is the meaning of clan. Thank the taxonomists for put me as the representative of gramineae， then let me tell you about the migration of our family.

The gramineae appeared on the Earth about 90 million years ago. It was the cretaceous period in geology. When it comes to the cretaceous period， you may think of dinosaur soon. Our ancestors really have had intimate contact with dinosaurs. In the journal “Science” of 2005， it is reported that people found in the fossilized dinosaur dung of India the microstructure which probably belonged to the gramineae——phytolith. Phytolith is small particle consisted of silicon dioxide in and out of the plant cells. this discovery showed that a part of herbivorous dinosaurs at that time feed on our ancestors. Of course， we wont let them eat us easily， the hard phytolith is a big trouble for the herbivorous animals teeth.

Talking about the specific origin location of gramineae， there are still debates among scientists， some think its Africa， while some think its South America. No matter its in Africa， South America or India， the gramineae is always split off from the great ancient land called Gondwana in the southern hemisphere. So our family were typical southern “people” in the earliest time， we had never seen the Big Dipper.

Today our family has been all over the world， almost conquered the vorious habitats. Let alone the Arctic Circle and the high mountain areas， even in the Antarctic exists one of our brothers——the hair grass at the South Pole. In the beginning， however， our ancestor is only a small tropical forest grass， our family is not very prosperous. Now， we still have three thinly populated distant branches living in the rainforest， sticking to the domain where our ancestor have struggled. They are a bit like bamboo in structure， but are herbaceous plants， so commonly known as “herbal bamboo”， “zhu” for short. There is a Nangfuzhu in Taiwan， which is the only wild zhu in China.