Day 15: grass

Miles:14

Water:4l

Dogs: too many 

Back on the trail today, feeling mostly recovered. We have left the hills of maryland behind and are in the long flat of Pa. Most everything we saw today was tall grass and farms, which is at least a change of pace from rocks and trees. We saw a herd of bears today. They seemed pretty docile, I don't know what everyone is afraid of.

Grass is fascinating. Walking through fields I would have expected at least my legs to be in the shade from the waist high vegetation, but we were in sun all day. Grass must be cleverly adapted to get what light it needs while still letting the sun hit its neighbors. Looking down into the grass it would be two feet before I even started to see shadows. We passed a field of planted wheat and the effect was more pronounced. You could easily see sunlight hitting the ground around the wheat.

Grass is so weird compared to other plants. It is long and skinny without branching, a single blade of grass is pretty well screwed, vulnerable to being eaten or pulled up by its single pitiful root. In a field of grass that single leaf is anonymous and safe. If something wants to eat it. The animal will probably get a mouthful of lots of leaves, letting them recover a group. The roots are so entangled as to be one, so pulling the grass up or eroding it is nearly impossible too. Grass! So awesome!

How does grass reproduce? You  can buy grass seeds. Does it have a yearly reproduction cycle or is it continually growing? No flowers makes me think it spreads by its roots? Is grass seed tiny root balls?

While laying in the grass during lunch I saw these tiny flowers. They are only about 1cm across, and were lost in the clover. What are they?