Researchers recently investigated the evolution of grasses, one of the most economic and ecologically important plant families, by sequencing the chloroplast DNA of an early diverging grass genus, Anomochloa, and comparing it to the chloroplasts of other grasses. Their examination of the chloroplast sequence uncovered features the Anomochloa chloroplast shares with other grasses, features unique to Anomochloa, and features that call into question our definition of grasses or the classification of Anomochloa as a grass.