sugar cane

Large tropical grass Saccharum officinarum, in the family Gramineae, one of the world's main sources of sugar. Plants reach 3-4 m/10-13 ft in height and have thick, solid stems up to 7 cm/2.5 in in diameter that yield a sugary juice when crushed. Sugar cane is native to Southeast Asia; it was taken to the Americas by European settlers, and is now cultivated in moist tropical and subtropical regions worldwide.

Sugar cane is an extremely productive crop, yielding more food per hectare than any other crop. The cane is generally propagated vegetatively, by planting pieces of the stem.

After the sugar has been extracted from the cane, the remaining crushed fibres can be made into paper or fibreboard, used as fuel, or mixed with molasses and fed to cattle.