Index / Search / Hierochloe odorata

§1 Plant

Hierochloe odorata (L.) P. Beauv.

vernacular sweetgrass — species · Poaceae


USDA
HIOD
GBIF
2703346 syn.
Rank
species
sweetgrass (Hierochloe odorata)
Platephotograph · Caleb Muskwa source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Habit and range

Growth habit
Graminoid
Duration
Perennial
Group
Monocot
Family
Poaceae Barnhart
Genus
Hierochloe
§2a

Native status, by region

  • AK Alaska Native
  • CAN Canada Native
  • GL Greenland Native
  • L48 Lower 48 States Native
  • SPM St. Pierre & Miquelon Native
§2b

County-level range

· 107 counties across 10 states/territories
Legend Native · 107 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought
Low
Shade
Medium
Moisture use
High
Fire
High
Salinity
Medium
Anaerobic
Medium
CaCO₃
Medium
Hedging
None
§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance
-38 °F minimum
Frost-free days
130 min.
Precipitation
16–50 in/yr
pH range
5.7–7.4
Root depth
12 in min.
Fertility need
Medium
Soil texture
coarse, medium
§3c

Form & growth

Growth form
Bunch
Growth rate
Moderate
Lifespan
Moderate
Mature height
2 ft
Foliage texture
Medium
Foliage colour
Gray-Green
Porosity (summer)
Porous
Porosity (winter)
Porous
Flower colour
Yellow
Fruit colour
Black
Fire resistant
No
N fixation
None
Toxicity
None
§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period
Mid Summer
Seed abundance
High
Seed begins
Summer
Seed ends
Fall
Spread rate
Slow
Stratify
No
Seeds / lb
110,000
Propagation
seed
§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability
Routinely Available
Nursery stock
No
Browse palatability
Medium
Graze palatability
Low
Palatable, human
No
Protein potential
Low
Lumber
No
Christmas tree
No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 107 counties across 10 states/territories.

Alaska view state ↗ 23 N
Maine view state ↗ 15 N
Maryland view state ↗ 1 N
Massachusetts view state ↗ 10 N
New Hampshire view state ↗ 4 N
New Jersey view state ↗ 6 N
New York view state ↗ 29 N
Rhode Island view state ↗ 5 N
Vermont view state ↗ 13 N
Virginia view state ↗ 1 N

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/HIOD ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/2703346 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T10:50:45Z