The commelinids are a group of 29 interrelated families of flowering plants, named for one of the four included orders, Commelinales. They account for most of the global agricultural output; the grass family alone contains the major cereal grains (including rice, wheat, and maize or corn), along with forage grasses, sugar cane, and bamboo. The palm, banana, ginger, pineapple and sedge families are also among the commelinids. Like other monocots, most of these plants have a single embryonic leaf (cotyledon) in their seeds, and are generally characterized by leaves with parallel veins, scattered vascular systems, flowers with parts in threes or multiples of three, and roots that can develop in more than one place along the stems. They are found worldwide, even in mainland Antarctica; two spe