Reproductive Versatility in the Grasses

This 1990 text brings together a detailed review by acknowledged authorities of grass reproductive biology.

G. P. Chapman (Edited by)

9780521188913, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 April 2011

314 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

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.

Preface
List of contributors
Acknowledgements
1. The grass family, Poaceae L. Watson
2. The spikelet W. D. Clayton
3. Ovule structure and diversity G. P. Chapman and J. Greenham
4. Fertilisation and early embryogenesis H. Lloyd Mogensen
5. Apomixis E. C. Bashaw and W. W. Hanna
6. Implications of reproductive versatility for the structure of grass populations A. J. Richards
7. An assessment of grass succession, utilisation and development in the arid zone M. D. Kernick
8. In Vitro technology P. A. Lazzeri, J. Kollmorgen and H. Lorz
9. Reproduction and recognitiion phenomena in the poaceae R. B. Knox and M. B. Singh
10. The widening perspective: reproductive biology of bamboos, some dryland grasses and cereals G. P. Chapman
Organism index
Subject index.

Subject Areas: Plant reproduction & propagation [PSTL]