Grass, the Horror Story

What's the most widespread plant you see as soon as you walk into Rand Parl? It's not the trees or the flowers or any plants lining the brook, it's the grass. Grass is everywhere. It's covering the park, it's common all around the world, it's probably covering most of your lawn right now. Yet, despite its constant presence, or maybe because of it, grass is not talked about much other than needing to cut or water it. That doesn't change the fact that grass is a very influential plant in its environment.

Grass is the perfect plant to be present on lawns, golf courses, estates, etc. This is because it looks attractive, feels great on bare feet, produces fewer allergies than other plants (when it is maintained it doesn't grow enough to produce flowers), and is very resistant to trampling, temperature changes, and other environmental factors. Sadly, what we think of as common grass is likely not native to whatever region you live in. Two of the most common grasses are Kentucky Bluegrass and perennial rye grass which originate from Kentucky and New Zealand ,respectively. Additionally, most sod and bags of grass seed contain 5 to 6 species of grass to allow the grass best suited to that environment to thrive. In many cases none of those species of grass are even close to native, making those lawns covered with invasive species.

However, the fact that most commercial grasses are invasive is not the biggest problem with grass. It is a widely accepted fact that biodiversity is an essential part of a healthy ecosystem. Decreases in biodiversity lead to unbalanced populations of species, unbalanced environmental factors like the presence of chemicals, and extinction events. Grass can be the cause of a significant decrease in biodiversity.

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First of all, grass, with human help, practically smothers the ground it is living on, making it difficult for native plants and trees to grow. Those plants then become more sparse, making it harder for plants to have a high genetic diversity. Also, there are fewer habitats for bees in grassy areas so plants aren't fertilized as much and produce fewer seeds with a higher percentage of seeds being made from two gametes from the same plant.

Next, because the populations of many species rely on specific food sources that are being slowly replaced with grass, those species' populations will shrink in size and density, causing breeding to become rarer and the population to drop even further. For example, many birds, like the robin, eat mainly seeds. Grass does not produce seeds when it is cut regularly, like it is on most lawns, and the plants that do produce seeds are much less common. The grass most people use on their lawns decrease the biodiversity of native plants and animals, sometimes even to the point of becoming endangered.

Thankfully, there are a few ideas in circulation of ways to stop this downward spiral. One is to plant clover instead of grass. Clover covers the ground just as well as grass does, and is durable. It also doesn't grow very tall and therefore needs to be mowed less, and it produces flowers low to the ground, meaning seeds and nectar are produced which will feed bees and birds. Another idea is to leave part of your yard completely untamed, allowing anything and everything to grow back there. This will give native plants a place to take hold and thrive so they don't disappear from suburban areas.

You can't even tell it's clover

Even if you don't want to plant clover or leave part of your lawn untamed, you should still host something native, or at least let the grass grow high enough to produce seeds. Recently the grass in Rand Park was left unmowed, and the grass grew tall enough to produce seeds within a few weeks. Anything that will provide food or shelter for native wildlife is a step in the right direction. So what are you waiting for? Go out there and stop planting grass!