HOW DO GRASSES KEEP GROWING IF THEY ARE CONSTANTLY EATEN?

Grasses are well suited to being grazed. Although many will grow to more than two metres (over six feet) if left undisturbed, they do not need to reach this height to reproduce. Even if a flower and seed head are never allowed to form, the plant can reproduce by sending out runner’s underground, from which new daughter plants can grow. As well as being able to grow upwards from their central stem, grasses also have lower growing points from which new stalks can grow if the central one is cut. In fact, by this means grasses grow more thickly than ever, giving more food for grazing animals to eat.

Grasses are amazing, living beings that most of us don’t really consider of importance. Grasses have evolved with grazing animals so that they can thrive after being eaten by grazing animals. Grasses don’t survive grazing: they thrive with grazing. How do they do it? These reasons are why grasses are particularly awesome, in my book, and how they “survive” with not just grazing, but fire too:

  1. The main growth point is at the very base of the plant, close to the soil surface that doesn’t get eaten by most animals.
  2. Other growth points are at the base of each leaf. A leaf that hasn’t quite reached maturity and is clipped off by a lawn-mower blade or grazing animal will continue to grow. Leaves that have reached maturity die from the tip down. Leaves get continually replaced by tillers at the base.
  3. They have daughter tillers at the base of every parent plant that grow up to replace the senesced or dead parent plants.
  4. Some grass species form ever-growing bunches. Some bunch grasses, like rough fescue, can have hundreds of tillers in one plant. Others spread out via rhizomes forming a dense sod.
  5. Grasses are particularly aggressive and determined to set seed before being defoliated again to spread out as much of their species as possible
  6. Some species are very picky about when to set seed; particular climate conditions and stressors will prompt some plants to set seed, while other conditions encourage them to wait for the right time
  7. Many native grasses are “decreases” under continued grazing (and with no grazing to control them eventually dominate the landscape), while other grasses are quite masochistic and love being grazed (the “increasers”) because it encourages them grow and spread out more.
  8. The roots of grasses are very fibrous and can grow to depths of 10 feet or more; the native prairie grasses of the tall-grass prairie are particularly famous for such massive root systems.

Roots are a good indicator of how healthy grasses are, and not all species have deep roots. Lawn grasses and many forage grasses have shallow root systems. But, root systems become increasingly shallow with continual heavy grazing, unlike those grasses that either doesn’t get grazed at all, or less frequently.

Grasses need predators, though, in order for them to truly thrive and survive. Without predators like wolves, lions, or even humans, grasses can suffer from overgrazing by even the “native” grazers. Predators force grazing animals to move on to fresh grounds, and in doing so allow grasses to rest and recover sufficiently for the next bout of grazing animals to come through.

Grasses can be killed with excessive grazing and trampling. There’s no doubt about that. Simply leave a herd of grazing animals in one small area for a long period of time—and it doesn’t matter what species they are—and you’ll eventually find bare patches of earth showing through. If you remove these animals from that area for a long period of time, those patches disappear and grasses recover to produce a lot of herbage for those animals to consume.

Picture Credit : Google