Fields, parks and lawns across Europe have turned to straw this summer. Landscapes thousands of years old have been revealed as green outlines against yellow backgrounds, where ancient underground walls and ditches retain enough water to sustain pockets of grass above them. Lawns and parklands have been especially affected because what water is available is being directed to homes and farms.

July was the driest month ever recorded in England and Wales, and droughts have affected parts of Britain in four of the last five years. As heatwaves become more frequent with global warming, this raises an uncomfortable question for a country that takes particular pride in its greenery: what happens to “England’s green and pleasant land” if summers like this become the norm?

The news isn’t all bad. As a group, grasses are good at surviving dry conditions, and their resilience has helped make them one of the most successful groups of plants on Earth. They now include more than 11,000 species and cover more than 40% of the........

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