Hierochloe
(from hieros, sacred, and chloa, grass; in the North of Europe, these grasses are strewn before church doors, on saints' days). Holy Grass. SYNS. Disarrenum, Savastana, Torresia. ORD. Gramineae. A genus of about eight species of sweet-scented hardy perennial grasses, inhabiting the colder regions of both Northern and Southern hemispheres. Spikelets three-flowered, open-panicled; flowers all with two paleas; glumes equalling or exceeding the spikelet, scarious. Hierochloes grow freely in damp spots, in any ordinary garden soil. Propagated by seeds, which are abundantly produced. H. alpina (alpine). fl., panicle contracted, 1in. to 2in. long; one of the staminate flowers barely pointed, or short-awned near the tip, the other long-awned from below the middle. July. l., lower ones very narrow. h. 1ft. Northern hemisphere (on alpine mountain tops),1827.
H. borealis (Northern). fl., spikelets chestnut-colour; staminate flowers strongly hairy-fringed on the margins, with the lower palea mucronate or bristle-pointed at or near the tip; panicle somewhat one-sided, pyramidal, 2in. to 5in. long; peduncles smooth. May. l. short, lanceolate. Culm 1ft. to 2ft. high. Rootstock creeping. Northern hemisphere (Caithness).