Sweet vernal-grass: in meadows and in Byron's Gin

Image courtesy of
John Crellin/ Floral Images
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/
page.php?taxon=
anthoxanthum_odoratum,1

Sweet vernal-grass Anthoxanthum odoratum is one of the earliest-flowering of our grasses (vernal means spring). 

As BSBI Handbook no.13, Grasses of the British Isles by Tom Cope & Alan Gray, makes clear "the appearance of the familiar yellowish-green inflorescences of sweet vernal-grass heralds for many the beginning of summer (and for some the hay-fever season!)" 

The grass contains coumarin which imparts a scent of new-mown hay and a distinct taste of vanilla. In fact one of the ways that many botanists (me included) learned to ID this grass as children was to nibble the stems while on country walks. ["Daddy, please may I have an ice-cream?" "We're miles from any shops, just be a good girl and chew that grass over there..."] 

The closely-related bison grass or holy grass Anthoxanthum nitens (formerly known as Hierochloe odorata) also contains coumarins and is used to flavour the delicious bison grass vodka, produced in Poland. Although A. nitens does occur in Britain it is rare and it would not be advisable for anybody with conservation in mind to consider foraging it. 

Image courtesy of
John Crellin/ Floral Images
http://www.floralimages.co.uk/
page.php?taxon=
anthoxanthum_odoratum,1

A. odoratum is, however, much more common and can be sustainably collected for use as a botanical in the Melancholy Thistle expression of Byron's Gin. That's the 'official' gin of the BSBI because for every bottle sold, a contribution is made to BSBI's Training programme which allows us to offer training grants to budding botanists. 

If you are still learning to ID sweet vernal-grass (and bearing in mind that you should never nibble a plant if you don't know exactly what it is) one good tip is to look at the flag leaf - the highest leaf on the stem. Compared to most other grasses, that flag leaf is very short and wide. It's also very green - check out the photo on the left. 

If there is lots of it and you have the landowner's permission - in other words, if you can meet the criteria laid down in the BSBI Code of Conduct - another way to ID this plant is to pull it out of the ground and sniff the underground parts which smell strongly of Germolene. Or you could examine the ligule and you should find a fringe of hairs. Check out this ID sheet to see what that looks like. 

Flora Celtica tells us that on the Hebridean island of Colonsay in the C19th, sweet vernal-grass was a welcome addition to the hay used to feed to sheep, because it gave their mutton a delicious flavour. So, a grass with many uses: as fodder, as a flavouring in Byron's Gin, or to quieten little girls who demand an ice-cream!