Plants in Sports

Turf Wars

Pondering turf – the natural kind!
Turf is the beautiful green grass of baseball, soccer, cricket, tennis, golf and football fields. Turf grass does the job of drought, heat and insect resistance and can take a beating on the field of play. The aesthetics are amazing, with the cool green scent of cut grass and the anticipation of a great game.

This isn’t an argument about the trade-off between natural and artificial turf, but instead observing the difference between monoculture and biodiversity. Turf is grown from one or two purebred grasses to keep a uniform look. Watering, fertilizing and maintenance needs are simplified with just one or two species – mono cultivation. This means low species richness, referring to the number of different species in a given area. Looking out at a baseball diamond, you’ll see the seamless green of Bermuda and rye purebred grasses.

Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles

High species richness means greater biodiversity with many different species in an area.

“Weeds” abound on ungroomed lawns like cinquefoils, dandelions, and plantains – unwanted on the playing field but big players in lawn biodiversity.

Pure play on grass can mean rolling down a hill, running barefoot, or getting eye-to-eye lying down on the ground to get close to the clover and crabgrass.

This isn’t  competitive sport, but experiencing
biodiversity on the lawn.