Sugarcane, or
sugar cane, is one of the several species of tall
perennial true grasses of the genus
Saccharum, tribe
Andropogoneae, native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of
South Asia and
Melanesia, and used for
sugar production. It has stout jointed fibrous stalks that are rich in the
sugar sucrose, which accumulates in the
stalk internodes. The plant is two to six metres (6 to 19 feet) tall. All sugar cane species interbreed and the major commercial
cultivars are complex
hybrids. Sugarcane belongs to the grass family
Poaceae, an economically important seed plant family that includes maize, wheat, rice, and
sorghum and many
forage crops.