Taxonomic Treatments

Abstract

The family Poaceae, popularly known as the “grass family”, is of considerable morphological complexity. It is customary that a variation pattern unraveled by a taxonomic or biosystematic investigation is recorded in the traditional taxonomic units. Thus, the family is broadly subdivided into five subfamilies, Pooideae, Bambusoideae, Arundinoideae, Chloridoideae, and Panicoideae (Renvoize 1981; Campbell 1985), which are not entirely discrete groups but reticulately interlinked by intermediate taxa (Ellis 1987). The availability of computer technology to produce data matrices (e.g., Hilu and Wright 1982; Hilu 1985) may help in further refinements in delimitation of taxa. Each subfamily is split into tribes. The large, unwieldy genera under the tribes are further divided into smaller units such as subgenera, species, subspecies, varieties, and forms. The Festuca-Lolium complex belongs to the tribe Poeae (formerly Festuceae) of subfamily Pooideae (formerly Festucoideae).