Where the Sweetgrass Grows
By Karl Ohlandt
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W
h en I talk to people about native plants, one of the aspects
I discuss is “sense of place.” This designation refers to the
characteristics of a place that if you were blindfolded and
dropped there would provide clues to your whereabouts. I
think that more than most any other characteristic, plants help to identify a sense
of place. For the Lowcountry of South Carolina the best indicators are palmetto
trees, live oak trees, Spanish moss and sweetgrass. That’s right, I have added
sweetgrass to that list. Not only is this a plant that thrives in our heat and salty
conditions but it has a unique ethnobotanical connection. This plant has come to
be identified with the locally significant art form of basket making. The African
American basket makers named it sweetgrass and use it as the primary material
in their coiled basketry. Both the materials and the coiled style of the baskets are a
direct connection to this art form in West Africa. Although the material used in the
baskets in Africa is not sweetgrass, it has a similar texture.
Sweetgrass or Muhlenbergia filipes (the source of the other common name
“Muhly Grass”) is a native, warm season, clump grass. It grows in two primary
areas along the coast: on the edge between the saltmarsh and the maritime forest,
and in the low areas between and behind the sand dunes on the beach. This is
definitely a plant that likes “living on the edge.” It seems to prefer wind, salt spray,