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A well-groomed lawn is a classic image of idealized American life.
2016-05-13
Walled off by a white picket fence, our grassy yards are where we host barbecues, lay out to stargaze, teach our children how to toss the pigskin (while dispensing valuable parental advice), and generally exude our American-ness during warm summer months.
But the origins of lawns are far from American. In fact, the grasses we prize consist of species that are from nowhere near North America.
Here's how the United States accrued the strange tradition of obsessing over these foreign and thirsty plants.
There's nothing quite as American as a well-manicured lawn. But the grassy feature has complicated roots that begin outside North America.
iStock
Before Europeans began colonizing eastern North America, the landscape was mostly forest and prairie.
USFWS Mountain-Prairie/Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0)
The native grasses of the United States were plants like buffalo grass...
Colonists sought to bring home the rolling pastures of England, for example, which are themselves the product of centuries of deforestation. (Gotta have timber to build a world-conquering navy!)
But it wasn't just longing for England that brought over lawn-friendly grass. These early settlers quickly realized that tough American grasses weren't adequate to feed livestock.
Bermuda Grass, another popular variety, came from Asia — which means it's an invasive species even on its namesake island. But it rapidly became a staple of southern American pastures and is also used for recreational sports fields.
The rise of suburbia really established the mowed, cared-for lawn as a fixture of the American dream — and a source of demoralization for anyone who dares neglect their lawn.
In the late 1940s, the real estate development company Levitt & Sons built thousands of homes in what became the first planned suburb in the world: Levittown, New York, on Long Island.
Marketed towards G.I.'s returning from World War II, each house came with a lawn, helping establish the grassy patches as fixtures of American suburbia. From there, the lawn became as American as apple pie and envying your neighbors.
So although it sure feels nice to run around barefoot on a well-cared-for American lawn, with soft, frequently cut grass, remember: That idealized lawn is not botanically American.
And in drought-stricken regions out west, it's not worth all the water to grow a yard full of plants from rainy England in southern California. Stick with a native grass instead.
Sean was an intern for Tech Insider, covering science that raises eyebrows. He has written and fact checked for Popular Science and holds a degree in journalism from Northwestern University.
