At the Flint Hills Discovery Center. This room shows various types of native grasses from a (theoretical) vantage point of under the earth. The tubes they're displayed in show the full length of their roots, and at top, part of the above ground grass. Some of these grasses have roots 10-12 feet long. If they had tried to show the full height of the grass above the ground, the ceiling would have had to be a lot higher. Big bluestem can grow up to 9 1/2 feet high. Indian grass up to 8 feet tall. You can see, in contrast, Little Bluestem in the foreground, with much shorter roots.
The walls of this display room are painted as though it's a cross section of earth, with roots painted on in parts. The ceiling has some shorter fake roots hanging down.
There are a lot of other displays on all aspects of the Flint Hills -- biology, geology, history -- including native and pioneer peoples, and present day issues. It's worth seeing if you're in the area. My mom and I were there yesterday to see a temporary exhibit that will close soon, focused on local history (Manhattan, Kansas State University, and Fort Riley) from 1917 to 1963. Lots of stuff, including items of popular culture from the various eras. There was a previous exhibit that had dealt with the history up to that time, so this one started up where that left off. But I digress. That had nothing to do with grasses.
