Tom Cain 00:03
There's a single plant that makes up the world's most significant food source. Not only that, it's also the most efficient oxygen giver in the plant realm can control climate, and is the most effective at absorbing pollutants.
This super plant grows on all continents representing about 26% of the plant life on Earth. The list of merits goes on, it can grow up to 150 feet tall. It's used to make some of your favorite alcoholic beverages and it can increase your home's value by up to 20%.
What's the name of this mysterious super powerful plant?
It's actually one you've seen touched and maybe even have just a few meters away from you at this very moment.
Grass.
Yep, the grass that you have on your lawn or nearest park. But not only that.
By definition grass is a monocotyledonous plant, which means that each seed produces only one leaf sprout. Additionally, most crosses are herbaceous, so they don't produce woody stems and they die back to the ground at the end of the growing season.
They grew up in a family called Poaceae, which contains more than 10,000 varieties including corn, wheat, barley, oats, rice, and even bamboo amongst many others. But how was this plant Empire born?
The story of grass goes way, way back. It's actually one of the oldest living organisms discovered. Research says that grass became widespread towards the end of the Cretaceous, which is about 65 million years ago. We know this because microscopic grass structures were found in fossilized dinosaur dung.
Since then, grasses have adapted to every climatic condition imaginable. Lush rainforest, dry deserts, cold mountains, even in polar regions. Antarctic hairgrass is the only member of the Poaceae family native to Antarctica one of more than 10,000 varieties in which grass has evolved.
They also developed other crucial abilities, grasses have evolved to grow at their base instead of their tips. Unlike most plants, this allows grace to be walked on burned devoured by deers, buffaloes, cattle, grasshoppers, caterpillars, without receiving any damage to their growing points, retaining the ability to regrow quickly. Now, they are the most widespread plant type.
Grass has been our evergreen buddy along our evolution as humans. Not only do plenty of cattle consume grass, we also do. So you should thank grass for wheat, rice, sugar, corn, oats, barley, rye, whiskey, noodles, beer, and tortillas.
Don't eat your lawn, though. Well, actually, you could. But the amount of common grass that you'd have to eat to get any nutritional value makes it an impractical choice.
Besides, it would be a terrible financial decision. According to the American Society of Landscape Architects, a healthy lawn can increase a home's value by up to 20%, which is not surprising at all when you consider the benefits. Home landscapes that include grass lawns can reduce the air temperature surrounding the home by up to 14 degrees Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius.
It also absorbs particulates and some of the worst atmospheric pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and ozone. Grass absorbs greenhouse gas and converts it into life-giving oxygen and it does so at a much higher rate than native plants because of the higher leaf density and faster growth rate. A 2500 square foot lawn can produce enough oxygen to sustain a family of four and is three times more productive at producing oxygen than one large tree. An acre of grass produces more oxygen than one acre of tropical rainforest. And you can also put one of those pink flamingos in for decoration. They are adorable. No wonder they're the most popular lawn ornaments sold around the world.
So don't let the grass grow under your feet. Go show some appreciation for grass right now. And try to get a house with a lawn ASAP.
If you're interested, you could check out the center cord at Wimbledon considered the most expensive Law in the world.
The next time you stroll through a park, enjoy a picnic on the lawn, or have a beer with some Mexican-style tortillas, take a moment to appreciate the incredible world of grass. After all, without it life as we know it wouldn't be the same.
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