Hybrid grass helps to prevent floods.

Can grass help control flooding?

A new hybrid variety of grass is very absorbent of water, which may help prevent flooding, or reduce run off from farm fields.

Data from the Rothamsted Research site in North Devon, England found that 51 percent less run off occurred from the hybrid grass than the perennial ryegrass that is currently used to feed livestock.

The grass is a cross pollination between perennial ryegrass, and meadow fescue.

Kit Macleod, a senior research scientist at the James Hutton Institute based in Aberdeen who worked on the study said: “We saw that there was a change in the soil structure, and that can increase the storage of water.”

There are advantages and disadvantages to growing hybrid plants.

They do not produce seeds that will grow the same plant, so new seeds must be bought every year, and they are harder to take care of.

However, they also can yield up to 25 percent more when harvested and are physically the same, which makes them easier to harvest by machine.