Sweetgrass (hairy sweetgrass, northern sweetgrass) makes its home in wet meadows across North America.  The common names come from the vanilla-like fragrance of its leaves, which retain their scent when dried.  For a grass, it is a showy spring-bloomer, the largish, purplish spikelets (grass flowers) on wiry stalks.

Sweetgrass is valued for its aromatic properties and is often used in traditional ceremonies by various Indigenous cultures.