A to Z "L"

L is for Lightning.

When you live in the country, you know to seek cover when a storm approaches. But you also know that lightning--in some ways, is your friend.

I remember, when I was a little girl, grandma warning us about getting caught out in a storm.  When you have acres to roam, and it's in a big valley, sometimes you don't see the storm coming for the BIG hill blocking your view.  So we learned to be vigilant, and if we heard thunder, to beat feet for the house or the barn, whichever was closest.

And if we chose the barn, stay inside. Don't peek out at the rain and lightning, because "lightning balls roll right off the barn roof onto the ground." Yeah. I'm grinning as I write that, because that is what grandma said. Was it another cautionary tale? I don't know. There is such a thing as ball lightning. It's rare. I think if grandma saw it even once in her life, it would have been enough to have her warn us about it till the cows came home.  And she did.

All that aside, have you ever wondered why it is, in spring when the world is all winter-brown and bleached tan, that after a good thunderstorm the world turns green overnight? It does. It's nothing short of stunning--the change that occurs. And the neatest part?  There is science behind what the old timers have known (through simple observation) for centuries.

Nitrogen is one of the big three in a bag of fertilizer. The first number on the bag represents nitrogen content.  It's one of the big three because it is SO very necessary for plants. And the role it plays in plant growth is that of leafy, vegetative, green growth--as opposed to root growth or flower/fruit formation.

So what does that have to do with lightning making the world turn green? Lightning changes things. It "fixes" nitrogen in the soil into a useable form.

Your soil could be full of nitrogen, but if it's in a form that a plant's roots can't "take up" (absorb), then it may as well be tiny plastic balls.  What happens when lightning occurs is a plant lover's sort of alchemy. It turns the nitrogen into a usable form by separating the nitrogen molecules to the other molecules they were bound with. The plant roots gobble it up and it goes to work--that fast! A lawn can turn green overnight after a spring thunderstorm.

Lightning--photo caught with my cellphone.

A to Z "L" is for Lightning: a little science behind the green grass

Lightning...just the word brings visions, memories, and a slew of emotions.  People are afraid of it, people are in awe of it.  It can change our lives in a split second.

                                      
Lightning is extremely powerful...the actual event-- and the words denoting it, too. Perhaps one of the reasons why is that even though science (for the most part) understands it, it is still unpredictable and refuses to be bound or harnessed in any way.

Powerful...lightning...and its twin, thunder. 

When I was a small child, I recall my grandmother (who was born in 1885) telling stories about lightning balls rolling down off of the barn roof.  I never saw them...but believed that it had happened.   And we all knew that if a storm approached, we were to beat-feet for the house or inside one of the farm buildings. Get away from the creek and out of the woods. Never hide beneath the sheltering branches of a tree.  Everyone was aware of the local farmer whose herd of cows took shelter under a tree in his pasture, and when the tree was struck, the cows were all killed.

                                         

Even knowing all of that, on a warm summer evening when distant rumbles sound--seeming to shake the earth, I look for a place to watch the storm's approach.  The leaves quiver, the softwoods turning their silver backs away from the coming weather.  I patiently wait, anticipating the first breeze and the smell of rain.  Lightning is pure magic.  Not many things are...but lightning is one, and thunder--the harbinger of its approach.

So, while thinking of lightning in terms of being magic, it brought to mind something the old timers always said (you know how I love the things the old timers said).  When there was a first spring storm after the ground had thawed, and lightning flashed across a mud-brown and dead grass landscape, "That'll make the grass green."

Yep...unless it is was one of the earliest storms--in a mid-winter thaw, it did, indeed, make the grass green.

When I was young, I just sort of figured that there was something purely magical about.  Not that I didn't wonder why.  I would tear apart a baby's rattle to understand it--if I'd had the tools. But a child can't begin to tear apart the magic in lightning and green grass.

Enter adulthood, and bigger, better tools. :-)

The "N" on a fertilizer label denotes the nitrogen content. We have nitrogen in fertilizer because it fuels leafy, green plant growth.  Doesn't do so much for roots, flowers, or fruiting...but if you are looking for healthy, vigorous, green growth, nitrogen is your dynasty.  Plants need nitrogen.

The air in our atmosphere is about 78% nitrogen.  But, it is not in a form that plants can use. Plants can't take the nitrogen directly out of the air.
 
When lightning strikes, it super-heats the air near to it.  In doing so, it causes the nitrogen to bind with the oxygen in the air--forming nitrogen oxides.  These combine with moisture in the air.  The now "fixed" nitrogen is carried to earth by rain, and these nitrates can be taken up and used by the plants.  Lightning fixes nitrogen into a form usable by plants.

                                              
Okay, we understand it now.  Still, when you fall asleep listening to  approaching thunder, and wake up to a dramatically greener world... seems like pure magic to me. :-)