Soldiers Delight | Kill Your Lawn Clip | EarthX - video Dailymotion

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EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/   Plants are pretty - but looks aren't everything! Joey & Al explain the ecological importance of non-invasive plant species and uncover how native plants have evolved to survive in toxic soil from serpentine rock.   About Kill Your Lawn:  Best friends Joey and Al set out across America to accomplish their mission: carry out a turficidal killing spree and leave a trail of pollinator-friendly, native plant gardens in their wake. It’s time to laugh our way to a lawn-less future!    This clip comes from Season 2, Episode 2: "Anti-Lawn Gospel"    EarthX  Love Our Planet.  The Official Network of Earth Day.    About Us:  At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.     EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.       EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/    Follow Us:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthxtv/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/earthxtv  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/earthxtv      How to watch:   United States:   - Spectrum  - AT&T U-verse (1267)  - DIRECTV (267)  - Philo  - FuboTV  - Plex  - Fire TV    #EarthDay #Environment #Sustainability #Eco-friendly #Conservation #EarthxTV #EarthX

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00:00While Rajuta and Rahul's yard transformation continues, we make the 30-minute drive to

00:07Soldier's Delight Natural Area, which is home to 39 rare, threatened, and endangered

00:12plant species.

00:13And let me tell you, as soon as we get there, the horticultural travesties are clear as

00:18day.

00:19This is f***ing nuts, man.

00:21I can't believe this grass right here is Miscanthus.

00:24That's the invasive s*** we just pulled out of their yard.

00:29Invading the surrounding countryside.

00:31What?

00:32Could be the first step of what ends up being a larger invasion.

00:37Miscanthus.

00:38On the woods, escaping captivity.

00:41Yeah, they got people planting s*** with no regard to ecology.

00:44It's that mindset that like nothing you do actually matters, it's just like how it looks.

00:49Yeah, none of this matters, it's just greenery.

00:52But that's because we're raised in a society that views plants as nothing more than pretty.

00:57It's either pretty or it's not.

00:59There's no context for ecology and that's what we're trying to change here at Kill Your

01:01Lawn.

01:02Get people to stop being nimrods and pay attention to the context of the world that they live

01:06in.

01:07Start observing it, you know?

01:08Though it sounds like it'd be a reference to some horrible venereal disease, it was

01:12actually observations by British soldiers patrolling this area in the late 1600s that

01:17led to its name.

01:19And Soldier's Delight doesn't need invasive plants moving in.

01:22It's got enough problems with native Smilax rotundifolia, known as common greenbrier,

01:27which, due to fire suppression and poor land management, seems to be crowding out everything

01:31else.

01:32It's so weird that this is, just from an ecological standpoint, that the Smilax is so dominant.

01:39Greenbrier stems can photosynthesize like leaves, crazy.

01:43So it has a longer growing season than other nearby plants, and its thorns protect it from

01:47getting totally devoured by forest animals.

01:50Ah, this f***ing greenbrier, what a pain in the a**.

01:56It's evolved to grow in all kinds of habitats along the east coast.

01:59But out here, in what's known as the Serpentine Barrens, native plants are uniquely adapted

02:04to survive in soil infused with minerals from serpentine rock.

02:09You can see a paucity of forest here, it's because the soil is quite toxic.

02:15Okay, so turns out, excess amounts of magnesium and iron and low amounts of essential nutrients

02:22like nitrogen inhibit plant growth in many species.

02:26Now serpentine got here via an ancient subduction zone.

02:31A subduction zone is what happens when a piece of oceanic crust dips back down towards the

02:37mantle to be recycled, but on its descent, little pieces of that oceanic crust get scraped

02:45off, such as serpentine, and that's exactly what happened here.

02:50This is all serpentine rock.

02:52That's the geological piece of the puzzle.

02:54The botanical piece comes from the power of native plants to adapt and survive.

03:00Evolution being what it is, some plants have evolved to tolerate this chemical toxicity,

03:08and not only have they evolved to tolerate it, they've evolved to outcompete other plants

03:14which may not.

03:19So this solidago, this goldenrod, this is a different species of goldenrod, of solidago

03:24grown in Juta and Rahul's yard.

03:28Because we're on this serpentine kind of meadow, prairie, and this is like a hardy little b****

03:34right here who's just hanging on.

03:36It's a different species of rad.

03:40It doesn't get that tall because the soil's kind of toxic.

03:43Serpentine basically causes speciation in plants.

03:47If you've got, say, a solidago that grows on non-serpentine soil that abuts a patch

03:52of serpentine soil, it's just continuously dumping seed onto that serpentine soil.

03:57Most of the seed that lands there and germinates is not going to be able to tolerate that serpentine

04:01soil, but eventually, one out of however many thousands of seeds that do germinate on that

04:06serpentine soil will have a mutation that enables them to deal with the innate soil

04:10toxicity.

04:11That image is blowing my mind, man, of the border of serpentine and a different kind

04:16of soil and those solidagos on one side on the non-serpentine soil just doing their thing,

04:21throwing seeds down, and it's just generational after generational adaption.

04:27To tie all this back to the yard, we hear that a lot from our producers.

04:32It's great that Aaron and his crew are planting native plants that are local ecotypes, meaning

04:37they were grown from local seeds and plant material.

04:41This preserves local biodiversity and gives these newly planted natives a better chance

04:45of thriving where there was once only the bland uniformity of the lawn.

04:51Make it look a little random so it doesn't look all cookie cutter, and that's going to

04:56be better for how they end up growing in, too.

04:58If you offset them a little bit, they get more root space to grow in.

Soldiers Delight | Kill Your Lawn Clip | EarthX

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