Project Number: 5428-21000-006-09
Project Type: Grant

Start Date: May 12, 2004
End Date: Jul 30, 2006

Objective:
May 2003 saw publication of volume 25 (warm season grasses), the first of two volumes on the grasses of North America (Barkworth et al, 2003). This was the first step toward the long sought goal of publishing a comprehensive, illustrated taxonomic and floristic treatment of grasses found in North America. The objective of this effort is to develop and publish the companion volume #24 (cool season grasses) in The Flora of North America. Once volume #24 is published contents of volumes 24 and 25 will be modified, reduced, and published as a single volume identification manual, one that will be a worthy successor to Hitchcock's (1951) Manual of Grasses of the United States.

Approach:
Published volume 25 of The Flora of North America includes grasses in the Arundinoideae, Danthonioideae, Chloridoideae, Aristioideae, Centothecoideae, and Panicoideae. Volume 24 will provide two sets of keys to the genera as well as treatments on the approximately 790 species of Pharoideae, Bambusoideae, Ehrhartoideae, and Pooideae that occur in North America. One set of generic keys will take users through the subfamilies and tribes to the genera; the other will work through the groups that share some easily recognized features, such as awned lemmas, and ignore taxonomic groups. Additionally, volume 24 will have hand drawn sketches for each species that illustrate the plant characteristics used in the keys to identify individual species. Volumes 24 and 25 will be combined into a single comprehensive treatment of all the grasses of North America.

Project Team

Chatterton, N - Jerry Mary Barkworth - Assoc. Professor, Biology (Taxonomist) 435-797-2249

Related National Programs

Rangeland, Pasture, and Forages (205)   Plant, Microbial & Insect Genetic Res., Genomics, & Genetic Improv. I (301)