Sweet Grass Feur Moire (Gaelic) Hierochloe odorata (Page background: H. odorata in bloom)     Indian women in my area pick Sweetgrass and make it up into braids for keeping. It is picked by the women because their special 'medicine' is required for the job. Men should not pick sweetgrass, their energies aren't compatible with the task. (Men may use it as incense or smudging, however - it makes no difference.) Don't ask me to explain women's medicine - ask a female elder or a medicine woman, I haven't a clue - and that's the way it should be. I would assume, as in picking any herb, that the proper considerations be given to the creator, the plant and the various spirits that are involved.     Sweet grass does not hold an ember well, so to use it for incense, it should be broken or cut up and sprinkled on a small piece of glowing charcoal. Sweetgrass is one of the herbs used in the Inipi.     Sweet grass can be bought in a Nursery and grown at home. I am going to buy some to plant alongside the jogging trail beside the Fall River (SD) so there will be some to share with others and the plants will not be in a 'cage.' I will ask a Lakota lady to bless it and put it in the ground. Sweetgrass does not grow well from seed because it produces more sterile seeds than fertile ones. It is best to grow it from the rhizomes.     ~Webel Fetzer More Details: Fact Sheet On Sweetgrass (.pdf format) Leaves few and short; leaves of sterile shoots 4"-12" long. Stems hollow, erect, 8"-24" tall; arising from among the dead foliage of the previous year. Rhizomes slender and creeping; rhizomes and roots forming dense mat beneath the soil surface. Flower structure an open pyramidal panicle 1¾"-4¾" long, with slender branches. Spikelets three-flowered. Fruit a caryopsis. Dried sweet grass foliage is fragrant because of its coumarin content and is used as incense and in making perfume. The long leaves of sterile shoots are used by Native Americans in making baskets. Sweet grass has religious significance to many Native American peoples. Sweet grass tea was used for coughs and sore throats, to treat chapping and windburn, and as an eyewash. It was strewn before church doors on saints' days in northern Europe. Sweet grass occurs in wet meadows, low prairies, the edges of sloughs and marshes, bogs, shaded streambanks, lakeshores, and cool mountain canyons. In spring, creeping rhizomes of sweet grass produce inconspicuous fruiting culms with leaves that are few and short. Somewhat later, long leaves develop from separate sterile basal off-shoots. Culms shrivel soon after flowering.

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