The perfect American lawn has a complicated origin story

A well-groomed lawn is a classic image of idealized American life.

Walled off by a white picket fence, our grassy yards are where we host barbecues, lay out to stargaze, teach our children how to toss the pigskin (while dispensing valuable parental advice), and generally exude our American-ness during warm summer months.

But the origins of lawns are far from American. In fact, the grasses we prize consist of species that are from nowhere near North America.

Here's how the United States accrued the strange tradition of obsessing over these foreign and thirsty plants.

There's nothing quite as American as a well-manicured lawn. But the grassy feature has complicated roots that begin outside North America.

Before Europeans began colonizing eastern North America, the landscape was mostly forest and prairie.

The native grasses of the United States were plants like buffalo grass...