Using bone meal on grass/fern in the air consumes the bone meal without doing anything

I tried to use bone meal on levitating grass on fern.

What I was expecting to happen:
The grass/fern will grow or break (of course consuming bone meal)
What actually happened was:
Bone meal consumed and the grass/fern stayed there and didn't grow and it didn't break either, and it still emitted those green particles.