Plant · P-698

Maygrass

Phalaris caroliniana

Maygrass is an old seed crop of eastern North America, gathered and planted for thousands of years before maize arrived, with caches of its seed heads found stored in dry Ozark bluff shelters. The seed is small, starchy and high in protein, and it ripens by early summer, filling the hungry gap at the end of winter stores. It is also a Phalaris grass, and animals that graze enough of the growing plant can develop a slow, often fatal staggering disease, so it is grown as a seed crop and kept out of pasture rather than grazed.