{"id":773,"date":"2025-04-21T16:51:53","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T16:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/?p=773"},"modified":"2025-04-22T02:48:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T02:48:29","slug":"dr-seuss-grickle-grass-a-pernicious-mindset-and-a-paean-to-the-tenacity-of-the-poaceae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/2025\/04\/21\/dr-seuss-grickle-grass-a-pernicious-mindset-and-a-paean-to-the-tenacity-of-the-poaceae\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Seuss&#8217; Grickle Grass: A Pernicious Mindset and a Paean to the Tenacity of the Poaceae"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Dr. Seuss&#039; The Lorax - Theatrical Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dNMBVVdrMKo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve been watching and rewatching the movie adaptation of Dr. Seuss&#8217; The Lorax, and enjoying myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a fairly extreme pro-environment film, with the usual greedy businessman as the very obvious villain. There is also a questionable &#8220;co-hero&#8221; in the story who ends up destroying an environment and making it a &#8220;barren wasteland&#8221; after cutting down all the so-called truffula trees as a way to get rich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the original, the wasteland where the truffula trees used to be is described in the book as such:<br><br><em>At the far end of town<br><strong>Where the Grickle-grass grows<\/strong><br>And the wind smells slow and sour when it blows<br>And no birds ever sing excepting old crows<br>Is the Street of the Lifted Lorax<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"The Lorax-Opening Credits\/Grickle Grass\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eu8uMeTxP9Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The newer 2012 film amends this verse so it now says: <br><br><em>Far outside town, <strong>where the grass never grows,<\/strong><br>and the wind smells slow-and-sour when it blows. <br>And no birds ever sing, excepting old crows. <br>That&#8217;s the place where the Once-ler lives.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the original&#8217;s contention that only the grickle grass could grow in the wasteland created after the removal of the truffula interested me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>First of all, it highlights some of the ecological viewpoints instilled into the minds of people after decades of preaching about the dangers of tree cutting.<\/strong> The initial contention that removal of the trees would create an actual barren wasteland is likely false as far as I can figure. The original environment showed lush carpets of ground herbaceous flora, and I can&#8217;t imagine why such a panoply of plants would not continue to survive even after the removal of the already sparse trees. In addition, the implied second contention that a landscape without trees is a &#8220;wasteland&#8221; is also one that seems to have burrowed into the popular mindset, and this has caused untold destruction of old growth grasslands, especially in the more tropical regions (where old colonial ideas have infiltrated the current local policies).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/bonfire.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-792\" srcset=\"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/bonfire.jpg 800w, https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/bonfire-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/bonfire-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Dichanthelium thermale<\/em> and heat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Secondly, the fact that only grickle grass could grow in this area highlights the exceptional adaptability of the Poaceae, and their ability to survive and flourish in more extreme environments.<\/strong> Indeed, grasses are often the first to colonize new land. For example, the dune grass <em>Leymus arenarius<\/em> was one of only 4 plants to appear during the first decade after the formation of the volcanic island of Surtsey in 1963 (Magnusson et al, 2014). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Grasses also have the ability to survive in the widest range of temperatures among plants, with <em>Deschampsia antartica<\/em> able to live down to -10 degrees C (with an optimum of 10 degrees), <a href=\"https:\/\/poasession.blogspot.com\/2020\/12\/how-one-badass-grass-thrives-at-thermal.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">and <em>Dichanthelium thermale<\/em> able to tolerate up to 65 degrees C in the active geothermal areas of Yellowstone National Park.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another example of the adaptability of grasses is their capacity to survive in very saline environments. Even though the largest number of halophytes are in the plant family Amaranthaceae (with 550 halophytes), the Poaceae have at least 148 species, making it one of the top four plant families when it comes to being able to tolerate salt (Aronson and Whitehead, 1989).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, the Poaceae are notable for their ability to withstand soils that are heavily contaminated with toxic heavy metals. In fact, grasses have been touted and used as phytoremediators of heavy metals and are used for eco-restoration of contaminated mining sites (Patra et al, 2021). Such a talent would undoubtedly be useful in the polluted industrial environment that was created after the clearing of the truffula trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This proven adaptability of the Poaceae means that it is no surprise to me, that out of all the plants, a grass would be the one able to survive in the Lorax&#8217; barren wasteland. You just have to love these tenacious critters!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"954\" height=\"537\" src=\"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2390_fpf_00684r_wide-898ecacd3ff085bc238b85972f4317b40c92f757.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-793\" srcset=\"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2390_fpf_00684r_wide-898ecacd3ff085bc238b85972f4317b40c92f757.webp 954w, https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2390_fpf_00684r_wide-898ecacd3ff085bc238b85972f4317b40c92f757-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2390_fpf_00684r_wide-898ecacd3ff085bc238b85972f4317b40c92f757-768x432.webp 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 954px) 100vw, 954px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Lorax (2012). (c) Universal Pictures<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In the end, the rather simplistic (and arguably extreme) underpinnings of the story&#8217;s pro-environmentalist message can be excused because the goal is true and surely needed during these dismal times. In addition, the movie itself is really enjoyable and the animation of a high quality, and I would highly recommend it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Literature Cited<\/strong><br><br>Aronson, J. A., &amp; Whitehead, E. E. (1989). HALOPH: a data base of salt tolerant plants of the world.<br><br>Aslam\u00b9, R., Bostan, N., Nabgha-e-Amen\u00b9, M. M., &amp; Safdar, W. (2011). A critical review on halophytes: salt tolerant plants. Journal of Medicinal Plants Research, 5(33), 7108-7118.<br><br>Magnusson, Borgthor &amp; Magn\u00fasson, Sigur\u00f0ur &amp; \u00d3lafsson, Erling &amp; Sigurdsson, Bjarni. (2014). Plant colonization, succession and ecosystem development on Surtsey with reference to neighbouring islands. Biogeosciences. 11. 5521-5537. 10.5194\/bg-11-5521-2014.<br><br>Patra, D. K., Acharya, S., Pradhan, C., &amp; Patra, H. K. (2021). Poaceae plants as potential phytoremediators of heavy metals and eco-restoration in contaminated mining sites. Environmental Technology &amp; Innovation, 21, 101293.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been watching and rewatching the movie adaptation of Dr. Seuss&#8217; The Lorax, and enjoying myself. It&#8217;s a fairly extreme pro-environment film, with the usual greedy businessman as the very obvious villain. There is also a questionable &#8220;co-hero&#8221; in the story who ends up destroying an environment and making it a &#8220;barren wasteland&#8221; after cutting&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_siteseo_robots_primary_cat":"none","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,59,31],"tags":[61,62,60],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-and-arts","category-dominance","category-extreme-life","tag-deschampsia","tag-dichanthelium","tag-leymus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":809,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions\/809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keyapa.com\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}