The family containing grasses and bamboos, Poaceae, includes an estimated 12,000 species. Grasses and bamboos have always been a central pillar of people’s lives, providing rice, maize, sugarcane, and bread wheat for humans and livestock. Despite their importance, Madagascar’s grasses are still poorly known. This guide provides a practical means of identifying these beautiful and interesting plants at the generic level, featuring 144 grasses described with life size color photographs.

Maria Vorontsova is a botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

— Candollea