# Are there any land areas with no grass? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2013, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-land-areas-with-no-grass/649694 "2013-02-08T12:32:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Anise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/anise/32/21721_2.png) [@Anise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anise)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-land-areas-with-no-grass/649694/21 "2013-02-09T17:13:08Z")
The salt flats in Death Valley. We were just there on vacation! 🙂 Basically, nothing grows there except some kind of salt-tolerant bacteria. [Here’s a picture.](http://letslearngeology.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/salt-flats-death-valley.jpg) Most of the sand dunes there are also grassless. [Take a look at this.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Sand_dunes_death_valley_5.jpg) Doesn’t it remind you of the desert where Yosemite Sam chased Bugs Bunny on a camel? ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-land-areas-with-no-grass/649694/22 "2013-02-09T21:05:58Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > I’m not sure if this fits your definition, but in South Florida grass does not grow naturally. It’s basically a drained swamp. Yards and developed areas which have grass have transplanted sections of sod with grass that has been germinated in it. The swamps of South Florida are naturally an [overgrown tangle of grass and sedge](http://www.rhinostudio.com/images/desktop%20images/Florida-grass.jpg). > [@lieu](#): > > In rain forests the amount of shade and poor nutrient quality of the soil generally restrict naturally occuring grasses to along streams and manmade clearings. So they do exist but are relatively infrequent. Grasses are common throughout rainforests. They’re usually not particularly dominant and are generally small scrambling plants like \*Oplismenus \*or _Cyrtococcum_, but they are ubiquitous. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-land-areas-with-no-grass/649694/23 "2013-02-10T14:25:50Z")
Check out the high, cold, mountainous deserts of the Zanskar mountains. Only where there is irrigation is there anything grass like. ‘The Vale of Kashmir’ was one of the wonders of the ancient world because of the astounding shock of a lush green valley, after miles and miles of empty desert, I believe. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2013, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-land-areas-with-no-grass/649694/24 "2013-02-10T14:35:49Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Define “land area”. There are several deserts in Spain where grass is rare to non-existant, but if your minimal size is 100 km[sup]2[/sup] then I think the ones I know don’t qualify. The “small plants” are bushes, crawlers, succulents (think cactii, aloe) or, in arroyos, mosses. They do have their own climates (micro, of course). Ah, that must be because most of the precipitation there falls in certain flat-lying regions. Or so I’ve heard. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-land-areas-with-no-grass/649694/25 "2013-02-11T11:09:40Z")
The [the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica](http://www.unp.me/f8/the-dry-valleys-antarctica-driest-place-on-earth-55325/) have not seen rain for 2 million years, indeed they have no moisture of any sort - no water, ice, snow, nothing. So, no grass or anything else. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-land-areas-with-no-grass/649694/26 "2013-02-11T11:41:36Z")
In the Fynbos Floristic Kingdom of the Western Cape, South Africa, the niche of “grasses” is generally filled by [Restios](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restionaceae). There are a few endemic fynbos grass species, but none come to mind easily. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-land-areas-with-no-grass/649694/27 "2013-02-11T13:11:13Z")
Most of the high arctic/Canadian Archipelago is grassless. Too cold, too dry, and mostly gravel and sand. Not much to grow on. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-land-areas-with-no-grass/649694/28 "2013-02-11T15:03:17Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > How about Surtsey and Rockall? Wiki indicates that a tussock of grass floated to Surtsey but there’s no indication it survived. Wiki also indicates that an improperly handled poo once sprouted a tomato plant, which was immediately terminated with extreme prejudice. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-land-areas-with-no-grass/649694.md?page=1)