Grasses lecture series

Do grasses have flowers? How can you tell a grass from a sedge? Why does the crabgrass in the lawn stay green and lush in midsummer while the bluegrass goes dormant? Learn the answers to these and other questions, as well as some terminology to help you to identify and describe grasses.

If you eat, you eat grass fruits, which we commonly refer to as grains. Rice, wheat and maize (corn) are the ones eaten most, and we’ll focus on these. The type of wheat used to make bread is the result of human plant breeding experiments that go back thousands of years. Maize is also completely dependent on humans, and may have first been consumed only when infected by a fungus. We’ll touch on pros and cons of modern plant breeding methods.

There are about 10,000 different species of grasses, but only a dozen or so are common on the trail and we’ll talk about a few of them.  We’ll expand on what we learned in the first two sessions to discuss some things to consider when planting grasses on the trail or in yards, such as native vs non-native species and consequences of planting hybrids. We’ll discuss ecotypes and cultivars, bunch grasses and sod-forming grasses, cool season vs warm season grasses, and other features. We will not cover turfgrasses or the planting and care of traditional lawns. 

Video of this lecture is available below.