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Etymological Dictionary of Grasses

  • Book
  • © 2007

Overview

Authors:
  1. H. Trevor Clifford

    1. Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha, Queensland Herbarium, Toowong, Australia

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Peter D. Bostock

    1. Environmental Protection Agency, Queensland Herbarium, Toowong, Australia

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Dictionary with about 12,500 entries, more than any other dictionary in print
  • H. Trevor Clifford is a retired academic with a long term interest in the biology and uses of grasses; Peter Bostock is a practising taxonomist who studies ferns and has developed computer programs for translating and writing Botanical Latin
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

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Table of contents (27 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages I-XII
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    1. Introduction

      Pages 1-12

  3. Dictionary

    1. A

      Pages 13-39

    2. B

      Pages 39-57

    3. C

      Pages 57-86

    4. D

      Pages 86-99

    5. E

      Pages 99-108

    6. F

      Pages 109-117

    7. G

      Pages 117-128

    8. H

      Pages 128-142

    9. I

      Pages 142-148

    10. J

      Pages 148-151

    11. K

      Pages 151-159

    12. L

      Pages 159-177

    13. M

      Pages 177-200

    14. N

      Pages 200-208

    15. O

      Pages 208-216

    16. P

      Pages 216-243

    17. Q

      Pages 243-244

    18. R

      Pages 244-255
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Keywords

About this book

As employed here the term grass applies only to species included in the Poaceae, one of the largest families of flowering plants. However, the word is often applied to any herbaceous plant with long, narrow leaves. A similar view was adopted by the Ancients. The Greeks applied the words poa, poe and agrostis to herbaceous plants in general and the Romans employed the words gramen and herba in a similar sense. In both cultures, unique names were applied to species of economic or special s- nificance. As a major source of cereals, pasture plants and even timber, the Poaceae are one of the most important economic plant families. Many have acquired vernacular names but these vary from place to place and so are of limited value for technical purposes. For ease of professional communication vernacular names are replaced with bino- als whose use is controlled by an International body. Initially the binomials were derived mainly from words of Classical Greek or Latin, but the practice was never strictly enforced. Today taxonomists often employ words from their own language or resort to naming grasses after places, people, ships, uses, acronyms to name but a few sources. In the process the names are often Latinized making it difficult for readers, especially those whose language has not been inf- enced by the European Classics, to recognize their sources and to determine their meanings.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Brisbane Botanic Gardens Mt Coot-tha, Queensland Herbarium, Toowong, Australia

    H. Trevor Clifford

  • Environmental Protection Agency, Queensland Herbarium, Toowong, Australia

    Peter D. Bostock

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