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GRASSES OF THE COLUMBIA BASIN OF BRITISH COLUMBIA Heather Stewart, Richard Hebda Major Groups of Grasses Table of Contents Glossary Hierochloe Sweetgrass The genus Hierochloe has a long association with holy ceremonies. The name comes from the Greek hieros, meaning sacred, and chloë, meaning grass or holy-grass. In Northern Europe it was placed in front of churches on Saints' days. Throughout North America, First Peoples appreciated sweetgrass for the scent. It was woven into baskets and mats, burned as incense or worn in a sachet as an insect repellent. The fresh, sweet scent comes from coumarin, a crystalline substance that was once extracted and used commercially as flavouring. There are two species found in British Columbia: Hierochloe alpina, which grows in the subalpine and alpine zones, and Hierochloe odorata, which grows in moist meadows, streambanks and forest openings from lowland to subalpine zones. Hierochloe odorata (L.) Beauv. Common Sweetgrass Plant: Hierochloe odorata is a native species that grows to 30-50 cm tall. It is a sweet-scented perennial with purple bases and rhizomes. The open flowerhead is pyramid-shaped. Leaves and Stem: Open sheaths are smooth to slightly hairy. The ligules are 3-5 mm long, have blunt to pointed tips and are slightly ragged along the upper edges. There are two kinds of leaf types -- leaves formed without stems (vegetative) and the leaves that form with stems. The leaves that form along the stems are narrower (1-2 mm) than leaves that form without stems (3-5 mm). The collars on the sheaths of basal leaves often have white hairs. There are no auricles. Flowerhead and Flowers: The flowerhead is open, 5-10 cm long and pyramid shaped. Each brown and shiny spikelet contains three flowers. Two lower flowers contain only stamens, and look like scales, the fuller third flower is complete. The wide, smooth glumes equal or exceed the flowers. The unawned lemmas are finely hairy all over and pointed. Habitat: Sweetgrass is classified as native due to its global distribution, which is circumpolar. It is widely distributed in British Columbia east of the Coast-Cascade mountains but rarely grows in abundance at any one location. The preferred sites are moist meadows, streambanks and forest openings from lowland to subalpine zones. Sweetgrass occurs at Canal Flats, Nelson, Cranbrook, Flathead River, Peckam's Lake, Kootenay Lake and Graystokes Plateau. Similar Species: Common Sweetgrass is like Alpine Sweetgrass (Hierochloe alpina) except that it has a membranelike ligule and no awns. Alpine sweetgrass has awned flowers, and the ligule is half membranelike and the other half is long hairs. The sweet smell, brown shiny spikelets and the two staminate flowers in each spikelet make this genus distinctive.

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