Backyard Biology
Many lawns look like a bunch of turf grass and not much else. The reality is more complex. In a recent Nature Museum study, botanist Barbara Johnson surveyed seven Chicago lawns. In addition to Kentucky blue grass (which originally comes from Eurasia) and rye grass (which comes from Europe), she found seven other non-native turf grass species. She also found white mulberry from Asia, Creeping Charlie from Europe, Peruvian Daisy from South America, along with more than 100 other species, most of them non-native.
What does this mean? Though our lawns and parks are beautiful green spaces, they support relatively few native plants and animals and don’t work as functional ecosystems.
