Reproductive Versatility in the Grasses

Originally published in 1990, this text brings together a detailed review by acknowledged authorities of grass reproductive biology. Grasses are our most important plants whether for agriculture or conservation. Essential to contemporary awareness of grasses is an understanding of their role in sustaining ecologically fragile environments, and the relative importance of annual and perennial reproduction is examined here with particular reference to indigenous dryland grasses marginal to major deserts. Molecular biology and tissue culture allow us to intervene in reproductive systems and the issues include a fundamental revision of the concept of double fertilisation grass pollen in relation to human allergy and the prospects for developing wheat male sterility. The book concludes with an overview to assess how far evolution of the grass is coming under human control.