Taking Inventory: Grass

What’s the point of grass? Well, in the real world it’s a vital component of the world’s ecosystems and provides about half of the energy we humans get from food. The grass family includes not just lawn grass, but also crops like wheat, rice and corn and even exotic species like bamboo. Much of the rest of our food comes from animals that eat grasses.

Grass is pretty ubiquitous, too. It covers about 40% of the world’s land surface (if you don’t count Greenland and Antarctica) and is commonly found in almost all of the real world’s biomes - from swamps, to forests, to mountains, to tundra. We even build with grass, turning it into thatch and straw, and use it to make biofuels for energy.

In Minecraft, though, grass doesn’t serve quite as varied a purpose. It looks nice, so you can use it to decorate your home. You can’t put it in pots, I’m afraid, but it does provide a lovely bit of texture in a garden - a solid backdrop for the flowers. As the saying goes: “Behind every great flower, there’s a load of grass.”

You can also smash it up in the hope of finding wheat seeds, which drop occasionally when grass is broken. Or, if you want to inflict the ultimate insult on grass, you can compost it and use it to grow other plants. Taller grass works even better for composting.

So there you have it. At least three uses for one of the most common sights in Minecraft. Next week: how to cook with dirt.