Grass vs. Herb

By Jaxson

Main Difference

The main difference between Grass and Herb is that the Grass is a family of plants and Herb is a plant used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume

  • Grass

    Poaceae or Gramineae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants known as grasses. Poaceae includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and cultivated lawns and pasture. 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. With around 780 genera and around 12,000 species, Poaceae are the fifth-largest plant family, following the Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, Fabaceae and Rubiaceae.

    Grasslands such as savannah and prairie where grasses are dominant are estimated to constitute 40.5% of the land area of the Earth, excluding Greenland and Antarctica. Grasses are also an important part of the vegetation in many other habitats, including wetlands, forests and tundra. 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 forage, building materials (bamboo, thatch, straw) and fuel (ethanol).

    Though they are commonly called “grasses”, seagrasses, rushes, and sedges fall outside this family. The rushes and sedges are related to the Poaceae, being members of the order Poales, but the seagrasses are members of order Alismatales.

  • Herb

    In general use, herbs are plants with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, medicinal purposes, or for fragrances; excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients. Culinary use typically distinguishes herbs from spices. Herbs generally refers to the leafy green or flowering parts of a plant (either fresh or dried), while spices are usually dried and produced from other parts of the plant, including seeds, bark, roots and fruits.

    Herbs have a variety of uses including culinary, medicinal, and in some cases, spiritual. General usage of the term “herb” differs between culinary herbs and medicinal herbs; in medicinal or spiritual use, any parts of the plant might be considered as “herbs”, including leaves, roots, flowers, seeds, root bark, inner bark (and cambium), resin and pericarp.

    The word “herb” is pronounced in Commonwealth English, but is common among North American English speakers and those from other regions where h-dropping occurs. In botany, the word “herb” is used as a synonym for “herbaceous plant”.

Wikipedia
  • Grass (noun)

    Any leaves that arise from nodes in the stem and leaf bases that wrap around the stem, especially those grown as ground cover rather than for grain.

  • Grass (noun)

    Various plants not in family Poaceae that resemble grasses.

  • Grass (noun)

    A lawn.

  • Grass (noun)

    Marijuana.

  • Grass (noun)

    An informer, police informer; one who betrays a group (of criminals, etc) to the authorities.

  • Grass (noun)

    Sharp, closely spaced discontinuities in the trace of a cathode-ray tube, produced by random interference.

  • Grass (noun)

    Noise on an A-scope or similar type of radar display.

  • Grass (noun)

    The season of fresh grass; spring.

  • Grass (noun)

    That which is transitory.

  • Grass (verb)

    To lay out on the grass; to knock down (an opponent etc.).

  • Grass (verb)

    To act as a grass or informer, to betray; to report on (criminals etc) to the authorities.

  • Grass (verb)

    To cover with grass or with turf.

  • Grass (verb)

    To expose, as flax, on the grass for bleaching, etc.

  • Grass (verb)

    To bring to the grass or ground; to land.

    “to grass a fish”

  • Herb (noun)

    Any flavour or season food.

  • Herb (noun)

    A plant whose roots, leaves or seeds, etc. are used in medicine.

    “If any medicinal herbs used by witches were supposedly evil, then how come people from at least the past benefited from the healing properties of such herbs?”

  • Herb (noun)

    Marijuana.

  • Herb (noun)

    A plant whose stem is not woody and does not persist beyond each growing season

  • Herb (noun)

    Grass; herbage.

Wiktionary

Grass Illustrations

Herb Illustrations

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