Sweetgrass is a fragrant perennial grass used across North America for spiritual ceremonies, traditional medicine, basket weaving, and natural insect repellent. Its sweet, vanilla-like scent comes from a compound called coumarin, which is released when the leaves are dried. That fragrance is central to nearly every way the plant has been used for centuries, and it continues to find new applications today.
Ceremonial and Spiritual Uses
Sweetgrass holds deep significance for many Indigenous peoples across North America. Dried and burned as incense, it plays a role in smudging ceremonies, prayer, and other spiritual practices. The smoke is considered purifying and is often used to cleanse spaces, objects, or people before gatherings or rituals. In many traditions, sweetgrass is one of four sacred plants alongside tobacco, cedar, and sage.
Braiding sweetgrass is itself a ceremonial act. The three strands of a braid are often said to represent mind, body, and spirit. Braided bundles are burned, gifted, or kept in homes as a way to invite positive energy. Modern aromatherapy products, like sweetgrass hydrosols, are sometimes marketed for meditation and ritual use as well, described as pleasing to all spirits.
Traditional Medicine
Indigenous communities have long used sweetgrass for a variety of medicinal purposes. Teas and infusions made from the plant were traditionally used to treat coughs, sore throats, and other ailments. The smoke from burning sweetgrass was also inhaled for respiratory relief. While detailed clinical research on these applications remains limited, the plant’s cultural role as medicine stretches back generations and is well documented in ethnobotanical records.
Natural Mosquito Repellent
One of the more surprising uses of sweetgrass is as an insect repellent, and modern science has confirmed what Indigenous communities observed long ago. Researchers at the USDA and the University of Guelph isolated two compounds from sweetgrass, coumarin and phytol, and found them to be as effective at repelling mosquitoes as DEET, the active ingredient in most commercial bug sprays.
In testing, scientists prepared artificial skin membranes soaked in each compound and observed that mosquitoes were equally reluctant to bite membranes treated with coumarin or phytol as those treated with DEET. Both compounds are relatively nontoxic. Coumarin was notably an ingredient in Avon’s Skin So Soft products, which gained a reputation for insect-repellent properties before anyone fully understood why. Sweetgrass hydrosol is now sold commercially as a base for outdoor sprays, in part because of these properties.
Basket Weaving and Crafts
Sweetgrass is a prized material in traditional basket making, particularly among Wabanaki peoples in the northeastern United States and Maritime Canada. The grass is harvested in summer from coastal marshes, then dried in bunches until it’s ready to be braided. Both braided and unbraided strands are used to enhance basket designs, often combined with brown ash wood splints to create the finished product.
Braiding sweetgrass for basketry is a skilled craft learned through years of practice. The strands are typically braided while still slightly damp, then wrapped into coils. Baskets range from functional containers to intricate decorative pieces, and the coumarin in the grass gives them a lasting pleasant scent. These baskets are considered both art and cultural heritage.
Aromatherapy and Commercial Products
The sweet, honeyed fragrance of sweetgrass has made it popular in the aromatherapy and skincare industries. Sweetgrass hydrosol, a steam-distilled water, is sold as a room spray and can be added to lotions and body creams in place of plain water for a subtle, naturally sweet scent. The aroma carries green undertones alongside its characteristic vanilla note, making it distinct from synthetic fragrances.
These products are marketed for cosmetic use and as natural alternatives to conventional air fresheners. Some companies also sell dried sweetgrass braids directly to consumers for personal or ceremonial burning.
What Sweetgrass Looks Like in the Wild
Sweetgrass grows in wet meadows, low prairies, shaded stream banks, and along the edges of marshes and sloughs. It reaches up to about 30 inches tall and spreads through underground root systems called rhizomes, which allow it to form dense patches over time. The stems are hollow and smooth, with flat leaf blades that grow 4 to 12 inches long. Its flower cluster is a loose, open structure with drooping lower branches, appearing in late spring or early summer.
The plant thrives in moist, cool environments and is found across northern North America, from the Great Plains to the Atlantic coast and into Canada. It’s not always easy to spot among other grasses until you crush a leaf and catch that distinctive sweet smell.
Harvesting Sweetgrass Responsibly
How sweetgrass is harvested matters, both culturally and ecologically. Many Indigenous communities follow a set of ethical guidelines sometimes called the Honorable Harvest. These principles include never picking the first plants you find, only harvesting about half of a given area, always leaving enough for others and for the plant population to recover, and braiding or tying plants after harvest to signal to others that the area has already been picked.
The harvesting technique itself is important too. Traditional practice involves pinching the plant rather than pulling it up by the roots, which protects the rhizome system and allows regrowth. Studies comparing traditional Indigenous harvesting methods with leaving sweetgrass completely unharvested found that the traditional approach actually promoted better plant replenishment than no harvesting at all. The careful disturbance appears to stimulate new growth, much like pruning encourages a garden plant to fill out.