Ham grass

Ham is a grass species found in Naiparku. It is commonly found at the edge between moors, seasonal moors or flood moors and terra firma grassland. It has 3-14 long and slender blade-like dark green leaves grow in a fan-like arrangement, similar to Iris domestica. It has a quarterly life cycle: every 15 months (1/4 Colorian years), an individual produces numerous small, white flowers arranged in several small umbels, and the flowers bear black akenes before the individual dies. It is rhizomatous, and the rhizomes can be used for vegetative propagation. Its roots grow tiny globules that have nitrogen-fixing ability. In the third decade SFC, its nitrogen-fixing ability started to be noticed by Naiparkuan farmers: in Year 23 SFC, Rėpawovo Agėri made use of this trait and proposed a new farming technique based on spatial and temporal crop rotation, called Border Planting (padormyavu), where the main crop and ham grass are planted in alternate rows in the field (three rows of main crop to one row of ham grass), and every 12 months, the ham grasses are replaced by the main crop (before they flower), creating a temporal shift between main crop and ham grass depending on crop type. This new method, although more complex to implement, results in a decrease in demand for fertilizer and stability or even increase in crop yield, and despite initial resistance, it has seen growing acceptance over the next decade, partly helped by active promotion of the Cabinet of Agriculture in the Western Dynasty.