Hierochloe hirta (Schrank) Borbás. Hairy Holygrass, Sweetgrass, Vanilla Grass. Phen: Apr-Aug. Hab: Fens, wet calcareous meadows, high elevation pastures and openings, saltmarsh edges (DE). Dist: A circumboreal species and subspecies, widespread in n. Eurasia and n. North America, ranging south in North America to NJ, MD, PA, w. NC, OH, IN, IL, IA, SD, CO, UT, NM, and CA, with several disjunct occurrences in North Carolina, in Long Hope Valley, Ashe County, the Nantahala River Bogs, Macon County, and Pond Mountain, Ashe County. The report by Small (1933) ("recorded by Chapman from Statesville, N.C.") can be discounted; the record reflects a collection made in the mountains by Mordecai E. Hyams, a botanist and herb trader based in Statesville. Belden et al. (2004) document the first occurrence in Virginia.

Origin/Endemic status: Native

Other Comments: The sweet, vanilla-like odor of this grass is responsible for various folk uses – by Native Americans for making fragrant baskets, in Scandinavia strewn on church floors on festival days.

Synonymy: = Mi; = Anthoxanthum hirtum (Schrank) Y.Schouten & Veldkamp – FNA24, K3, K4, NE, NY, Va; = n/a – RAB; > Anthoxanthum hirtum (Schrank) Y.Schouten & Veldkamp ssp. arcticum (J.Presl) G.C.Tucker – Soreng et al (2003); < Anthoxanthum nitens (Weber) Y.Schouten & Veldkamp – Tucker (1996); < Anthoxanthum nitens (Weber) Y.Schouten & Veldkamp ssp. nitens – Soreng et al (2003); > Hierochloe hirta (Schrank) Borbás ssp. arctica (J.Presl) G.Weim. – K1; > Hierochloe nashii (E.P.Bicknell) Kaczm. – F; < Hierochloe odorata (L.) P.Beauv. – C, G, HC, Il, Pa, WV, Tucker (1996); >< Hierochloe odorata (L.) P.Beauv. – F; > Hierochloe odorata (L.) P.Beauv. var. fragrans (Willd.) Richt., (the North American plants); < Savastana odorata (L.) Scribn. – S13; < Torresia odorata (L.) Hitchc. – S

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Wetland Indicator Status:

• Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain: FACW (name change)
• Eastern Mountains and Piedmont: FACW (name change)
• Great Plains: FACW (name change)
• Midwest: FACW (name change)
• Northcentral & Northeast: FACW (name change)

Heliophily: 9