I come across this image from time to time on Pinterest or when I'm looking through Google Images. It is one of the best examples of why native plants are so incredible. It's a fairly straight forward diagram showing the depth of many native plants compared to a standard lawn grass. The lawn grass is on the far left. The lawn grass is Kentucky Blue Grass and the root system that supports it is less than 4inches deep. The roots can't keep the grass alive in hot, dry times of the year because they aren't long enough to find water beyond their depth. This is why you have to water it so much.
The other plants shown are natives. On the far right is Buffalo Grass - a native grass from the Great Plains of the US. The roots of this grass can grow as deep as 8 ft. It allows the plant to stay healthy during hot and dry summers. Right beside it is a Liatris (one of my absolute favorite plants). Its roots can go down more than 15 ft allowing it to survive drought conditions for prolonged times.
The root system of native plants have evolving for the extreme conditions throughout the different regions of the US. In New Jersey, for example, the temperature can go down to zero in the winter and then be in the 90s for weeks in the summer. The same is true for places in Illinois, Ohio, Maryland and others. So the endemic plants of this continent developed the ability to find water far below the surface of the ground.
The root system of native plants have evolving for the extreme conditions throughout the different regions of the US. In New Jersey, for example, the temperature can go down to zero in the winter and then be in the 90s for weeks in the summer. The same is true for places in Illinois, Ohio, Maryland and others. So the endemic plants of this continent developed the ability to find water far below the surface of the ground.
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