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The article presents the author's experiences in a field at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER), Aberystwth, Wales, watching grass grow. As soon as Danny Thorogood, a turf-grass breeder at IGER, leads the author into the middle of the field he realised that not all grass is equal. Stretching in front of them were rows of different grasses that Thorogood and his colleagues have bred to be more nutritious for cows, to resist droughts, or simply to stay green. In the distance he spotted giant miscanthus waving in the wind, a hybrid grass whose dry, leafless stems are a promising biofuel. INSET: The king of boringology.