What is the "profession" of cereals in the ecosystem: the features of the structure of representatives of the class

What is the "profession" of cereals in the ecosystem? In this article, we will try to consider this issue from the point of view of the structural and physiological features of representatives of the Monocotyledon class.

Cereals: plants of the grassy cover of the planet

Rye, barley, wheat, corn ... Perhaps, this list can be continued indefinitely. After all, cereal plants have about 10 thousand species. They are the vegetative basis of the ecosystems of steppes and meadows, and also occur in savannahs and pampas. From all other representatives of the Monocotyledon class they are distinguished by a particular economic significance and a wide distribution area. What features of the structure allowed them to achieve this importance?

Features of the structure of cereals

Family cereals, or meadowlike, like all Monocotyledons, have one cotyledon in the bud, a friable root system, simple linear leaves without petioles. In their stems there is no lateral educational tissue - cambium. Therefore, most cereals are represented by herbaceous forms. A distinctive feature of these plants is a hollow stalk of a cylindrical shape, which is called a straw. Cereals in the ecosystem of the tropics sometimes reach up to 50 cm in height. And sugar cane in general is a giant, growing to 4-5 m. The flowers of all cereals are small and unattractive. Their perianth is reduced and is represented by translucent films. Cereals are polluted by wind. Small flowers are always collected in inflorescences, such as a complex ear, cob, sultan, panicle, brush. As a result of their flowering, a dry, non-opening fruit is formed.

What is the "profession" of cereals in the ecosystem?

It is difficult to imagine a clearing in a meadow, steppe open spaces or a coastal river zone without cereals. And most of the malignant weeds are also representative of this family. What is the "profession" of cereals in the ecosystem of these biogeocoenoses? First of all, they are the supplier of additional water for all plants. This is possible due to the peculiarities of the structure of their root system. Cereals always grow in large groups. Their numerous thin roots are tightly intertwined, covering the ground and thereby displacing other plants. In this case, a special layer is formed in the surface layer - turf. It helps to keep additional moisture with the nutrients that all plants provide.

When the roots of cereals die, they become the basis of soils that are distinguished by high fertility, since they are rich in a large number of organic residues. Fruits and shoots of these plants use for food various species of animals of natural and artificial ecosystems. All cereal plants are producers. This means that in food chains they are producers of organic substances and oxygen, which are formed in the process of photosynthesis.

The most important cereals

What is the "profession" of cereals in the ecosystem, which is natural, we have already figured out. But we can not say that a man has long used these plants for his own purposes. Of particular importance among them are cereals. These include wheat, rye, barley, oats. Important food crops are rice, corn, sorghum. Many of the grass and weed plants. This is wheatgrass, ostrich, fire, goat, oatmeal. Friut and timothy are grown as forage grass. One of the most amazing cereals is bamboo, the straws of which grow to a height of more than a meter a day. A reed is the source of more than 50% of the sugar on the planet.

As you can see, cereals play an important role in natural and artificial ecosystems, being the basis for soils, a source of nutrition and moisture, as well as valuable food crops.