10 terms used for identifying grass species that sound like heavy metal band names

1. Involucre
2. Stolon
3. Primordium
3. Juncus
4. Spikelet
5. Monocotyledons
6. Digitate
7. Culm
8. Sheath
9. Scabrous
10. Puberulent

If you added umlauts to any of the above botanical terms, they would not seem out of place on a poster for Ozzfest. Alas, this is the sort of terminology that one encounters in the standard guidebooks on grass identification.

The photograph above is of the heavy metal band, Manowar. Formed in Auburn, New York, Manowar claims to have been the "loudest band in the world" and once was listed as such in the Guinness Book of Records. The Manowar fan base seems to largely located outside of the United States, particularly in Bulgaria, Argentina, and Brazil. I highly suggest a look at their website, manowar.com.

A largely unhelpful list of definitions for the terms listed above:

1. Involucre: one of more whorls of bracts below a flower cluster
2. Stolon: stem that is above the ground and can produce new shoots at nodes
3. Primordium: the growing point of a shoot or leaf
3. Juncus: genus of the rush family
4. Spikelet: Basic unit of grass inflorescence, with a pair outer glumes and one or more enclosed florets
5. Monocotyledons: a flowering plant that has only one seed leaf
6. Digitate: radiating from a common point
7. Culm: stem of a grass plant
8. Sheath: the bottom part of a leaf that surrounds the culm
9. Scabrous: rough to the touch, like sandpaper
10. Puberulent: something covered with very small hairs