Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Edible grasses grass, any plant of the family Poaceae (formerly Gramineae), an important and widely distributed group of vascular plants, having an extraordinary range of adaptation. Numbering...

(Encyclopedia) Hotan kōˈtänˈ [key], city and oasis (1994 est. pop. 75,900), SW Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, near the headstream of the Hotan River; the name sometimes appears as Ho-t'ien. It is the c...

(Encyclopedia) Flores flôrˈĕs [key], island, 6,627 sq mi (17,164 sq km), E Indonesia, one of the Lesser S...

(Encyclopedia) hay fever, seasonal allergy causing inflammation of the mucous membranes of the nose and eyes. It is characterized by itching about the eyes and nose, sneezing, a profuse watery nasal discharge, and t...

(Encyclopedia) gasohol, a gasoline extender made from a mixture of gasoline (90%) and ethanol (10%; often obtained by fermenting agricultural crops or crop wastes) or gasoline (97%) and methanol, or wood alcohol (3%...

(Encyclopedia) Midwest or Middle West, region of the United States centered on the western Great Lakes and the upper-middle Mississippi valley. It is a somewhat imprecise term that has been applied to the northern s...

(Encyclopedia) combine kŏmˈbīn [key], agricultural machine that performs both harvesting and threshing operations. Although it was not widely used until the 1930s, the combine was in existence as early as 1830. E...

(Encyclopedia) crayfish or crawfish, freshwater crustacean smaller than but structurally very similar to its marine relative the lobster, and found in ponds and streams in most parts of the world except Africa. Cray...

(Encyclopedia) harvest customs, practices associated with the celebration of the gathering of agricultural crops. The gathering of the harvest—the climax of the year's labors wherever the soil is cultivated—has ...

(Encyclopedia) smut, name for an order of parasitic fungi (Ustilaginales) and the various diseases of plants caused by them. Smuts produce sootlike masses of spores on the host. The spore masses may break up into a ...