What Is the Difference Between Trees and Grass? A Detailed Explanation of the Main Differences Between Trees and Herbaceous Plants

Herbaceous is a general term for a class of plants, but it is not a unit in the scientific classification of plants. The concept corresponding to herbaceous plants is woody plants. People usually call herbaceous plants “grass” and woody plants “trees,” but there are occasional exceptions, such as bamboo, which belongs to the herbaceous plants, yet people often regard it as a kind of tree. So what is the difference between trees and grass?

The difference between trees and grass

1. The difference lies in the different structure of the stem. The xylem of the stem of herbaceous plants is less developed, while the xylem of the stem of woody plants is developed, and most of the cell walls are lignified.

2. The vascular bundles of herbaceous plants do not have a cambium, so they cannot continue to grow and thicken, while the vascular bundles of woody plants have a cambium, and the stem can grow thicker and thicker.

3. In the vascular bundles of herbaceous plants, the xylem is distributed on the outer side and the phloem is distributed on the inner side, while in woody plants it is exactly the opposite.