Ruminants are, without exception, obligate herbivores subsisting as they do on a diet composed entirely of plant material. However, plant material is a diverse resource and within the Ruminantia there is a range of feeding niches with different herbivore classes focussing their foraging effort on different vegetation types (Hofmann 1989). The plant material available to herbivores comes in a range of morphological types with the major types being grasses, forbs, and browse. Grasses (including the morphologically similar sedges) are monocotyledonous plants characterised by a basal meristem, a low growth form and a relative lack of lignified support structures (except for some of the tall tropical grasses which could be considered to be morphologically classed as browse).
Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.
CITATION STYLE
Duncan, A. J., & Poppi, D. P. (2008). Nutritional Ecology of Grazing and Browsing Ruminants (pp. 89–116). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72422-3_4