Plantae > Tracheophyta > Liliopsida > Poales > Poaceae > Anthoxanthum > Anthoxanthum nitens

Anthoxanthum nitens (sweetgrass; vanilla grass)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Hierochloe odorata or Anthoxanthum nitens (commonly known as sweet grass, manna grass, Mary’s grass, or vanilla grass, and as holy grass in the UK, bison grass in Poland) is an aromatic herb native to northern Eurasia and North America. It is used in herbal medicine and in the production of distilled beverages (e.g., Żubrówka, Wisent). It owes its distinctive sweet scent to the presence of coumarin. This variety of grass is different from the species commonly known as buffalo grass (Stenotaphrum secundatum) in Australia.
View Wikipedia Record: Anthoxanthum nitens

Infraspecies

Anthoxanthum nitens nitens

Attributes

Bloom Period [1]  Mid Summer
Drought Tolerance [1]  Low
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Fire Tolerance [1]  High
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Frost Free Days [1]  4 months 10 days
Fruit/Seed Abundance [1]  High
Fruit/Seed Begin [1]  Summer
Fruit/Seed End [1]  Fall
Growth Form [1]  Bunch
Growth Period [1]  Spring, Summer, Fall
Growth Rate [1]  Moderate
Hazards [2]  The plant contains coumarin, this is toxic if taken internally;
Leaf Type [1]  Deciduous
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Wind
Propagation [1]  Seed
Regrowth Rate [1]  Moderate
Root Depth [1]  12 inches (30 cm)
Scent [2]  The plant, as it dries, emits a powerful scent of newly mown hay.
Seed Spread Rate [1]  Slow
Seed Vigor [1]  Low
Seeds Per [1]  110000 / lb (242508 / kg)
Shape/Orientation [1]  Semi-Erect
Structure [4]  Grass
Usage [2]  The dried leaves are used as an incense; They have also been used as an insect repellent in the clothes cupboard where they impart a nice smell to the clothes; The leaves are used to make aromatic baskets; The wet leaves can be sewn together, dried until they are tight and then resin used over the stitches to make a waterproof container; The leaves can be soaked in water to make a tonic hair wash; An essential oil distilled from the leaves is used in perfumery where it acts as an excitant and fixative for other aromas; The plant has a very aggressive root system and has been planted to stabilize banks;
Vegetative Spread Rate [1]  None
Flower Color [1]  Yellow
Foliage Color [1]  Gray-Green
Fruit Color [1]  Black
Height [2]  24 inches (0.6 m)
Width [2]  24 inches (0.6 m)
Hardiness Zone Minimum [1]  USDA Zone: 3 Low Temperature: -40 F° (-40 C°) → -30 F° (-34.4 C°)
Light Preference [3]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [3]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [3]  Infertile
Soil Moisture [3]  Wet
Water Use [1]  High
Screening - Summer [1]  Porous
Screening - Winter [1]  Porous
View Plants For A Future Record : Anthoxanthum nitens

Protected Areas

Predators

Cerodontha muscina[5]
Cosmopterix orichalcea[5]
Meromyza pratorum[5]
Phytomyza milii[6]
Trionymus phragmiticola <Unverified Name>[7]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 4Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 5Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 6Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 7Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0