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But the dinosaurs days of grazing were about to end abruptly. Sixty-five million years ago an asteroid ten kilometres wide across killed them off. The grasses survived. But they in turn would face their own crisis. Iain Stewart, How to Grow a Planet II: The Power of Flowers, BBC 2012
Evolution often comes up with our cleverest solutions during desperate times. And one group of plants, the grasses, turned this crisis into an opportunity. Iain Stewart, How to Grow a Planet III: The Challenger
The forests started breaking up. The grasses were on a land grab. Conquering the territory once held by the trees ... The world was ablaze ... Grasses were dominating the land. ibid.
They really are the lungs of the ocean. It’s remarkable what the humble grasses had achieved by five million years ago – a once forested planet was now dominated by open plains. Eight different species of grasses covering a quarter of all land. They’d selected which animals would live or die. And they’d fundamentally altered the ocean, playing a crucial role in our make-up of our atmosphere. ibid.
Grasses: these in Nepal are the biggest of all standing twenty feet tall. David Attenborough, The Private Life of Plants s1e3: Flowering, BBC 1995
Grass: it was only about 25 million years ago that grass began to spread widely on our planet. David Attenborough: Life on Earth: Mammals (revised series)
Vast open plains: immense spaces. Eerie silence. But any feeling of emptiness is an illusion. The plains of our planet support the greatest gatherings of wildlife on Earth. At the heart of all that happens here is a single living thing: grass. This miraculous plant covers a quarter of all the lands of the Earth. Grasslands exist wherever there is a little rain but not enough to sustain the forests. David Attenborough, Planet Earth s1e7: Great Plains, BBC 2006
Western Australia – these vast aquatic grasslands stretch for fifteen hundred miles. David Attenborough, Planet Earth s1e9: Shallow Seas
One quarter of all the land on Earth is covered by a single remarkable type of plant: almost indestructible it can grow two feet in a day. And be tall enough to hide a giant. The plant is grass and the world it creates is truly unique. The grass in northern India is the tallest on the planet, home to some of the most impressive creatures to walk the Earth. David Attenborough, Planet Earth s2e5, BBC 2016
One of the most remarkable grasslands on Earth: the Okavango: every year five thousand square miles of grassland are flooded. For one pride of lions this poses a major problem. ibid.
Grasses become the millinery equivalent of fruit and trees. ibid.
Soon, every ostrich has its own passenger. ibid.
Nothing cuts a swathe through grass like an African bull elephant. ibid.
From the ashes rises a phoenix – grass, the incredible survivor ... Grass is almost indestructible. Able to repair and reproduce itself rapidly it covers more of the Earth’s land than any other plant, and feeds more wildlife than any other. ibid.
Elephant grass is the tallest in the world. ibid.
The long grass plains of tropical India are home to some of the largest grass-eating mammals on our planet. And some of the smallest. ibid.
Rain sweeps across the continent, and grass the great survivor rises again. And the herds return. ibid.
Flooded, burnt, baked and frozen – grass can withstand it all. ibid.
But the most successful type of flowering is one that makes up 20% of all plant life on the planet: grass. There are ten thousand different species. David Attenborough, Life e9: Plants, BBC 2009
Grasslands: they support the greatest concentrations of large animals to be found anywhere on the planet. Here nature is at its most spectacular. David Attenborough, Planet Earth s3e3: Deserts and Grasslands, BBC 2023
The Eurasian Steppe, the largest grassland on Earth. It tests animals in a different way. Here the wind can blow at speeds of nearly 80 miles an hour. And temperatures can drop to below minus 30 degrees Celsius. ibid.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Mid-20th century proverb
Lawns ... Forcing everyone to be the same is bullshit. Penn & Teller, Bullshit! s7e8: Lawns, Showtime 2009
So where did a fucked-up idea like lawns come from? ... Some historians believe lawns first became popular in Scotland. ibid.
An average sized St Augustine lawn requires over four thousand gallons of water a week. ibid.
There are plenty of lawn junkies who buy into this pursuit. ibid.
One of the best-selling herbicides is 2-4D which was used by the military as one of the two main products of Agent Orange. ibid.
Nothing is more pleasant to the eye than green grass kept finely shorn. Francis Bacon, Essays: ‘Of Gardens’, 1625
His bail? Zero.
Prudente, 66, must stay in the Pasco County jail in Land O’Lakes until the required sod work is completed, under a September court order signed by Circuit Judge W Lowell Bray.
‘He’s in prison for God knows how long because we can’t afford to sod the lawn,’ said his sobbing daughter, Jennifer Lehr.
Prudente has owned a home in the deed restricted community since 1998. The covenants require homeowners to keep their lawns covered with grass.
Earlier this year, the Beacon Woods Civic Association took Prudente to court after he failed to install new sod on his browning lawn, which had withered after his sprinklers broke. The association had already sent letters telling him to resod his front and back yards by certain dates.
In an interview at the jail Friday evening, Prudente said he thought he had made a good financial hardship case to the association: His adjustable rate mortgage went up an extra $600 a month. Wachovia repossessed his Toyota Scion. His daughter and her two young children, who had fallen on hard times, moved in with him and his wife, Pat. Tampa Bay Times online article Jodie Tillman October 2008
The lawn care industry in the United States is a forty billion dollar industry. Ted Steinberg, American Green: Excessive Quest for the Prefect Lawn
Life is Short: Sod It! West Coast Turf company slogan
Stone, steel, dominions pass,
Faith too, no wonder;
So leave alone the grass
That I am under. A E Housman
It was the week after Easter holidays, and he was journeying along with Smart the mare and the light spring-cart, watching the damp slopes of the hill-sides as they steamed in the warmth of the sun, which at this unsettled season shone on the grass with the freshness of an occasional inspector rather than as an accustomed proprietor. Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree
THE GRASS so little has to do,—
A sphere of simple green,
With only butterflies to brood,
And bees to entertain,
And stir all day to pretty tunes
The breezes fetch along,
And hold the sunshine in its lap
And bow to everything. Emily Dickinson, Nature
The scented wild-weeds and enamell’d moss. Thomas Campbell, Theodric
O’er the smooth enamell’d green
Where no print of step hath been. John Milton, Arcades
While the grass grows —
The proverb is something musty. William Shakespeare, Hamlet III ii 358
How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green! William Shakespeare, The Tempest II i 52
Three grasses triumphed in ancient times: wheat, rice and corn. Andrew Marr’s History of the World I, BBC 2012
A snake lurks in the grass. Virgil, Eclogues