Sweetgrass
About this photograph
Photograph by Forest Starr and Kim Starr. Siesta Key Beach, Florida, 2003.
- Date created
- November 8, 2003
- Location
- Florida
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2003. Terms of use
Related media
Learn more
- Search LEARN NC for Florida, grass, Gullah, North Carolina, plants, South Carolina, and sweetgrass.
In the classroom
- See our collection of articles on visual literacy for ideas on using photographs meaningfully in the classroom.
Sweetgrass (Muhlenbergia filipes) is a perennial grass native to the southeastern United States ranging from North Carolina south and west to Texas. In the fall, sweetgrass flowers, giving it the purple hue seen in this photograph. Because of its strenth and flexibility, sweetgrass has been used in basket-making for hundreds of years, both by American Indians and by the African American and Gullah cultures of the South Carolina lowcountry. Sweetgrass is currently threatened by habitat destruction in many areas where it previously flourished.
