Synopsis Through well-planned seasonal exploration trips, most of the grasses previously recorded for the area together with a large number of additions, including several new discoveries, new, rare or endemic records, etc. have been collected and documented. This first step towards the study on the grasses of Kerala State, yielded about 296 species distributed in 103 genera, which consists of about 26 taxa new to science (2 new genera and 26 new species). In addition to the above novelties about 50 interesting grasses have also been collected from the area. Out of which, 4 are new records to India, 6 new records to South India and the rest form new distribution records or rare grasses for Kerala.