This book will demonstrate why crops and weeds are growing in characteristic environments today. It will try to predict how cropping practices may change in future and how these changes will affect weed spectra.
After an introduction explaining the distribution of grasses and their role for mankind, two chapters will summarize our knowledge on grass genomes. Special emphasis will be put on the function of genes at defined developmental stages and in organs of grasses. The development of grasses will then be explained from the germination to fruit set with many unpublished examples. A comparative description of selected grass organs (stem, root, leaf, inflorescence) will follow.
Several chapters will be devoted to habitats of grasses and morphological characteristics that enable grasses to grow in special environments. A few special chapters will deal with grasses as crops and weeds. Emphasis will be laid on their adaptation to modern agriculture.
In summary, this book will connect classical morphology with the latest tools in molecular biology as well as ecological aspects determining the wide distribution of grass species today.
