Grass

Chiricahua Mountains 

By Nancy Collins 

8th October 2019 

I’ve never given much thought to grasses. I’ve never stopped to consider their value or to appreciate their beauty. I’ve never learnt to distinguish between species. 

Working with Allegra and Perin, from Borderlands restoration, and Velar and Jose Manuel, from Cuenca Los Ojos, opened my eyes to the incredible restoration powers of grasses. Grasses are often encouraged first to grow in damaged or barren land. They provide stability to the earth and support the further growth of wildlife and plants. 

Bear grass, layman’s love grass, Giant Sacaton, Blue Grama, Spider grass, Pinon rice grass, Kane beard grass.

These were just some of the grasses we encountered.

When working on land restoration variety is key and a sign of a health landscape.

For one of our projects I created a ‘map’ of all the different grasses I collected. Created by making rubbings using chalk pastels on tracing paper I was able to capture the individual aspects of each. I wanted to emphasise how many different types of grasses there are, as this was something I’d never realized or appreciated.