Subject: RE: folklore of grasses

From: [email-masked] (Carolyn M Wetzel)
Date: 20 Dec 1994 20:12:38 GMT

Arthur Schwarz:
	I paged through several books I have regarding use of plants native
to N. America (Farrar, Wildflowers of Nebraska and the Great Plains; Moore,
Los Remedios:  Traditional Herbal Remedies of the Southwest; Densmore, How
Indians Use Wild Plants for Food, Medicine and Crafts; Erichsen-Brown,
Medicinal and Other Uses of North American Plants; Vogel, American Indian
Medicine, and Runkel and Roosa, Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie).  No
luck finding any of the plants on your list.
	However, in the Runkel and Roosa book, they have an entry for
Aristida oligantha (Michx.).  At the end of it they state, "Some 40 three
awn species occur in North and Central America; none are of great importance
economically.  There is little reference of their utilization by humans." 
In the same book, there is an entry for an Agropyron species, and they say
that the closely related A. repens (quackgrass, introduced from Europe) was
used by colonists as a diuretic, laxative, bread meal from roots, and grey
dye from roots.  This is not to say that the species you are interested in
has any of these properties, though.
	Have you considered researching the historical names of these
plants?  They may be listed in some older references based on their old
names.  For instance, Hierchloe odorata used to be called Torresia odorata,
and this is name under which it is found in the Densmore book. (There was no
Torresia alpina listed, although T. odorata had medicinal and religious
importance.)
	If you have any questions about this information, please contact me
by email.
	Good luck,  Carolyn

-- 
Carolyn M. Wetzel			[email-masked]
Postdoctoral Research Associate		Tel. 515/294-7784
Department of Botany			Bessey Hall
Iowa State University			Ames, Iowa  50011-1020