Medicinal Monday... Whiskey Grass

Andropogon virginicus L is a species of grass that is native to the southeastern United States as far north as the Great Lakes and is known as whiskey grass. It is an introduced invasive species in California, Hawaii, Japan, and Australia. It is called "whiskey grass" in Australia because it escaped after being used as a packing material for bottles of American whiskey.

About Whiskey Grass

This grass is a warm-season perennial grass that grows in clumps that form a dense erect tuft of flowering hollow stems or culms above ground that bear flowers. It is characterized by having very erect stems surrounded by droopy leaves around the base. Straw-colored remnants of old plants are usually found while new leaves and stems are growing. The elongated leaves are light green in the spring and in the fall, the leaves turn a rich orange to coppery red color. Where the leaf meets the shaft there is a small membrane of silver hairs. In the late summer flowering spikes emerge on slender stems, sometimes they are concealed beneath leaf sheaths that can be rounded or folded. The flower spikes fall off when they are mature.  The seed heads consist of several pairs of tiny branches that are enclosed by brownish leafy bracts.  Whiskey Grass grows in a wide variety of habitats from grass and pasture lands to open woodlands. This plant reproduces mainly by seeds that are easily spread by wind, animals, and even cars!

Medicinal and Practical Uses

The most common use of Andropogon virginicus L has been used to treat pain and gastrointestinal issues. A decoction of the roots was used to treat headaches and stomach aches. Another traditional use was to make tea from the leaves and use it as a wash to relieve fevers, frostbite, sores, itching, and poison ivy rash. It was also used in green corn medicine. The stems of this plant were once used to make yellow dye.

Did You Know...

Other common names for whiskey grass are broomsedge bluestem, beard grass, and yellowsedge bluestem.

The name Broom Sedge refers to the fact that the culms were used to make brooms in some of the southern states of the U.S.

A culm is the above-ground stem of a grass or sedge. The word is derived from the Latin culmus 'stalk' and is specifically used to describe the woody stems of bamboo, cane, grain, or certain types of grasses.

In Australia, whisky grass has degraded the habitat occupied by Charmhaven apples and is considered a threat to downy wattle.

Studies in the U.S. have found that fire intensity and the area of land burnt is higher in areas where whiskey grass is found.

Birds eat the seeds during the winter months and it also provides shelter for the bobtail quail, greater prairie chicken, and other wildlife.