U.K. researchers develop new grass type to better capture water runoff

As the atmosphere heats up, flooding is on the rise throughout the world.

Kit Macleod, a scientist at the James Hutton Institute in Scotland, is working to develop a new hybrid grass to combat that increased precipitation — by reducing runoff.

The grass itself, is called a festulolium, because one of the parent grass varieties is a fescue and the other one is a lolium. It’s primary use is as a grazing source for cows and sheep.

“In areas where we’ve got a lot of livestock in the UK, we’ve got quite poorly draining soils — clay rich, they’ve got little (water) storage,” Macleod said. “This grass, it certainly reduces the amount of water that was running off the fields. I think that’s due to the grass creating a more loose soil structure — basically more storage, more sponginess in these grass and fields due to the rooting of the grass.”

Over two years of testing, this hybrid grass was some 50 percent more effective in capturing rainwater and keeping it from running off the fields.

But the grass isn’t just perfect for capturing water, Macleod said. It’s just as good, he said, at providing food for livestock, and thus providing an income for farmers.

It’s too soon to say, though, whether this grass could be really useful in cities, where there’s already a lot of runoff from parking lots and other imperious surfaces. 

“There’s a lot of interest in rain gardens and sustainable urban drainage systems. There’s potential there,” Macleod said.

Macleod said his new grass seed is close to being marketable, but there’s still work needed by the seed companies and research to determine where this grass would be most useful — but in simple terms the answer is areas with climates similar to the United Kingdom. Basically sub-temperate climates — with plenty of rain.

Despite its promise, though, this isn’t some miracle grass. In extreme rain events, the soil will still get saturated. But it should help as rainfall totals increase.

“Hopefully, and overall, it would help slow the flow of the water coming down the catch basins. There’s a lot of interest in that at the moment,” Macleod said.