Thursday, February 12, 2009

Plants as Engineer

Plants have so many uses. We have already seen how plants can have architectural uses. They are also used for medicinal purposes.

And for recreational ones …

Another very important use for plants is in an engineering capacity.

plant

We use plants all the time for their strength and their power to hold the earth down.

sanddune

Plugs of grasses at the sea have the power to create huge sand dunes out of small ridges in the sand blown from the wind.

We use plants to hold down the side slopes of an ordinary ditch.

ditch

Or to keep a steep slope from eroding away.

Plants act as windbreaks.

windbreak20

They can provide shade and shelter from the sun on a hot day.

shade%20tree

In more ways than one.

grassterrace

2 comments:

  1. I especially love that 'sandy beach with the grass' image. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. So true. We have a hillside that is not planted yet, and it has been washing out with all the rain. We restocked soil and we'll put one of these cloth down this weekend that integrate into the soil.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments! Let me know your thoughts.