page_title: Poaceae
section_title: Sports turf
hierarchical_section_title: Poaceae / Uses / Sports turf
caption_attribution_description: English: Citi Field during the day
context_page_description: Poaceae or Gramineae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns and pasture. The latter are commonly referred to collectively as grass.
  With around 780 genera and around 12,000 species, the Poaceae is the fifth-largest plant family, following the Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, Fabaceae and Rubiaceae.
  The Poaceae are the most economically important plant family, providing staple foods from domesticated cereal crops such as maize, wheat, rice, barley, and millet as well as feed for meat-producing animals. They provide, through direct human consumption, just over one-half of all dietary energy; rice provides 20%, wheat supplies 20%, maize 5.5%, and other grains 6%. Some members of the Poaceae are used as building materials; others can provide a source of biofuel, primarily via the conversion of maize to ethanol.
  Grasses have stems that are hollow except at the nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks. The lower part of each leaf encloses the stem, forming a leaf-sheath.
context_section_description: Grass playing fields, courses and pitches are the traditional playing surfaces for many sports, including American football, association football, baseball, cricket, golf, and rugby. Grass surfaces are also sometimes used for horse racing and tennis. Type of maintenance and species of grass used may be important factors for some sports, less critical for others. In some sports facilities, including indoor domes and other places where maintenance of a grass field would be difficult, grass may be replaced with artificial turf, a synthetic grass-like substitute.
caption: Forms of grass are used to cover baseball fields, like this one in Citi Field, home of the New York Mets.
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