**4. From quackgrass to quackery and back**

food plants in the world are from Poaceae (in ranked order): sugar cane (*Saccharum officinarum*

While Poaceae currently has around 12,000 species, the majority have never been domesticated, and remain wild [36]. Though undomesticated, the harvesting of wild grass seeds has occurred on all inhabited continents [37], and persists right up to the present day in many parts of the world, even though seed collection and processing can be challenging for various reasons such as widespread distribution patterns with low abundance, shattering, lodging or competition with more dominant species. People turn to gathering wild grass seeds for various reasons—as a basic survival strategy to counter famine, poverty or economic depression, to maintaining traditional agricultural practices, preserving the traditional recreational or cultural activities of gathering of local wild food and plant medicines [29, 38–40], or for

Of those species domesticated, grasses can be loosely categorized as edible (e.g. cereal grains), medicinal, ornamental, pasture (e.g. fodder and forage), turf (lawn), technological (e.g. biofuel, building, paper, clothing, oils, perfumes and craft materials) and spiritual (e.g. ceremonial smudging and smoking, incense, and other cultural rituals). Some grasses fall into several categories, and some grasses may have a domestic use unique to a single place, while considered as useless elsewhere [44]. Other native grasses domesticated somewhere for food, medicine or technology are dismissed outright as problematic weeds or invasive species somewhere else,

with little regard for their rich histories, and traditional uses in their places of origin.

*'Plant names often reflect people's belief systems and oral histories'* [45, p. 1.171]. For example, quackgrass, originated in Europe and Central Asia, and was introduced to eastern North America by settlers in the eighteenth century [46]. It has since spread and naturalized urban and rural landscapes, been declared a weed in many states and provinces, and is the subject of substantial investments in time, money [47] and research to develop control methods that range from chemical pesticides to organic approaches using cover crops to prevent the spread [48].

Turn to any North American print or web reference on the weedy 'problem' of quackgrass— *Elymus repens* L., (syn. *Agropyron repens* L., *Elytrigia repens* (L.) Desv. ex Nevski), and the various common English names reflect beliefs and opinions about this plant that are relatively unflattering: couchgrass, twitch, quick grass, quitch grass, quitch, dog grass, quackgrass, scutch grass and witchgrass. However, in Lukomir, Bosnia and Herzegovina, for example, it is known as *piriki* [49], which, though used medicinally, translates from Bosnian (and also Croatian), to English as 'wheatgrass' [49]. *Piriki* then is a verbal reminder that this plant has utility as a cereal, albeit a poverty grain, that might be gathered in times of trouble such as the Bosnian War (1992–1995), when cultivating traditional cereal crops was diminished. Along with *vodenica mlini*, locally developed hydro-powered mills in Lukomir are supplied with water from wooden flumes to turn grindstones. When agriculture is practiced, cereal grains such as wheat, oats (*Avena sativa* L.), rye (*Secale sereale* L.), barley and corn are grown for flour.

**3. Loss of plant utility following translocation of a species**

ecosystem restoration and biodiversity conservation purposes [41–43].

L.), maize, wheat (*T. aestivum* L.) and rice [35].

92 Grasses - Benefits, Diversities and Functional Roles

Through the twentieth century, as the science of chemistry and modern technology expanded, herbalists were denounced as 'quacks' and herbal medicines were replaced by the component chemical compounds synthesized in laboratories and industrial factories [55]. Traditional knowledge has eroded or disappeared, as reported, for example, in Bali [56], or was saved for times of great need to survive famine, war and natural disaster without modern props. The repression and loss of cultural and ecological memory instigated by the colonialization of Indigenous peoples in North America and elsewhere [57, 58] has also turned around and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) informing herbal medicine is moving from the alternative fringe to a larger arena [59–61].

There is a strong tug between staying local and respecting traditional foods and medicines, and embracing the benefits of globalization through access to new, potentially more tasty or effective products. This dilemma is articulated both from the Eastern perspective, where practitioners of Asian botanical medicine suggest that those working in the West should use Western herbs [62], or whether Eastern traditional use rules apply in the West [63]. In the West (Europe), it is posited that Western herbal medicine in the United Kingdom refers to '*using plants largely native to Europe, within a philosophical tradition arising from European thought'*, and to avoid both North American and Eastern plants and healing traditions [64, p. 165].

By the turn of the twenty-first century, this attitude began to turn around as, for example, 'super bugs' invading humans have developed antibiotic resistance, and plant pathogens have likewise developed resistance to pesticides [65–68]. Reductionism in modern science is proving to be less helpful in facing new challenges because it compartmentalizes complex topics and ignores TEK, when there is considerable urgency and essentiality in supporting '*the integration of methods and results from different approaches and levels of analysis'* [69, p. 466]. A strong case is made for the integration of evidence-based medicine with TEK in order to avoid reductionism, and understand the plant holistically and ecologically, instead of breaking it down into useable parts and extracts [70]. Preserving TEK has significant positive implications for local socio-ecological resilience, and adaptation to change [71].

#### **4.1. Ethnobotany, traditional use and the search for resilient grasses**

The search for plants that have been traditionally used for food, technology and particularly medicine to replace ineffective modern creations has triggered a considerable amount of ethnobotanical field research across the planet. A plethora of research has been published, very recently, and I cite just a few here to provide some scope on the richness of information available for study [72–84]. Make no mistake that some of the studies cited are motivated by economics and profiteering, as the planet is scoured for 'new' plant materials that can become the 'next' food, nutraceutical, medicine or biotechnology product.

**5. The discounting of grass to single purposes and uses**

shown in **Table 2**, I turned to the *Oxford English Dictionary* (OED) online [95].

**Word Origins First English use Definition**

Grass OE græs, from Northern Europe

Hay OE híeg, híg, hég, = Old Saxon houwi

Pasture Middle English (ME)

pastura

pasturre, partly French pastour and Latin

In the 'Western' world particularly, and anywhere else that was exposed to European colonization, 'grass' is a generic term used to describe lawn, turf, sod and pasture. Where did these words originate, what do they really mean and why have they been essentially reduced to single purposes and uses? For the definitions and etymology of the 15 grass-related words

Turf Old English (OE) turf c725 CE **1.**Slab pared from the surface of the soil with the grass

Land OE land c900 CE The solid portion of the earth's surface, as opposed to

Fodder OE foddor c1225 CE Food for cattle, horses or other animals. Now usually:

Meadow OE mædewan c1275 CE A piece of land permanently covered with grass to be

sea, water.

forage'.

First as

water meadow n.).

c1300 CE A piece of grassy land used for or suitable for the

'Oxpasture', a Yorkshire place-name.

and herbage growing on it; a sod of grass, with the roots and earth adhering. Also, in early quotations, a

Beyond Turf and Lawn: Poaceae in This Age of Climate Change

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69736

95

**2.**A sod cut from the turf of an estate, and so on, as a

which are eaten by horses, cattle, sheep, and so on. Also, in a narrower sense, restricted to the smaller non-cereal Gramineæ [sic], and plants resembling

**2.**The grassy earth, grass-covered ground; esp. ground covered with grass closely mown and rolled, form-

ing a lawn in a public or private garden.

formerly (as still sometimes) including grass fit for

hay, straw or other dried food used to feed animals, esp. in the winter. Also (U.S. regional): part or all of the

Chaucer (c1390): 'Gras tyme is doon, my fodder is now

mown for use as hay; (gen.) a grassy field or other area of grassland, esp. one used for pasture. Also (regional): a tract of low well-watered ground, esp. near a river (cf.

grazing of animals, esp. cattle or sheep; pastureland.

small portion of the sward *in situ*.

token or symbol of possession.

c725 CE **1.**Herbage in general, the blades or leaves and stalks of

these in general appearance.

c825 CE Grass cut or mown, and dried for use as fodder;

mowing, or preserved for mowing.

corn plant used as animal food.

The drive to find better-yielding drought or flood-resistant cereals will tread heavily on the territory and cultures of Indigenous peoples. We must avoid the past mistakes of colonial resource exploitation, extraction and expropriation, or as Vandana Shiva says, 'biopiracy' [85]. Biopiracy is commonly seen as misappropriation or theft of plant genetic material—in part, or in whole. However, others speculate whether in the rush to find the 'next new', the motivation could be based on mutual aid and, with prior informed consent, results in knowledge transfer that helps bilateral economic development and conservation of species [86].

Prior informed consent requires the honouring of several UN international conventions. The *Convention on Biodiversity* [87], the *Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity* [88], and most importantly, the *United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples* [89], which set forth global obligations to respect biodiversity and cultural diversity while protecting Indigenous rights to lands and intellectual property. If an outcome of plant exploration is the documentation of TEK, Indigenous peoples reserve their right to share, or not.

With the consent of residents, a study of home gardens in Iberia found TEK and agricultural knowledge to have blended with modern knowledge, resulting in greater social resilience to change [90]. This is attributed to personal changes acquired through learning new knowledge, practices and beliefs. An important point to note is that TEK is not static, but rather grows in response to new knowledge [91]. Rural to urban migration in China has had a negative impact on the environment as modern agriculture supplanted TEK, though through an experimental ecological education programme, the TEK of more ecological agricultural practices was successfully transferred back to the participating agricultural community [91]. Acceptance of TEK and Indigenous low-carbon living is advocated as being the key to climate change adaptation and resilience [92].

Climate change is an evidence-based wicked problem that may be incrementally and cumulatively solvable if we accept that we are all in it together, and admit that ingenuity may come from outside science. This requires solid doses of knowledge intersectionality, and humility, which requires recognizing and responding to ignorance in decision-making [93]. A final point to note is, '*that a specific unit of knowledge is lost or kept by a society is not as important as whether the society retains the ability to generate, transform, transmit, and apply knowledge'*, which ultimately strengthens socio-ecological resilience [94, p. 646]. Good advice indeed as I continue this exploration of the changing role of Poaceae in this age of climate change.
