Ctenium aromaticum

No other grass in coastal Texas and Louisiana has a similar inflorescence. Sterile clumps can be distinguished with experience by the fibrous mat formed at the plants base by disintegrating leaves. Muhlenbergia expansa, a pineywoods species forms similar mats but has curly fibers and leaf blades up to 6 mm in width while the fibers of C. aromaticum are straight to gently curving and its leaves are less than 3 mm wide.

After a fire, cattle readily graze the herbage.

Found from Louisiana to Florida and north to Virginia along the Coastal Plain. Older plants are unpalatable to cattle but regrowth after fire is readily grazed. The freshly dug roots of toothachegrass have a distinctive spicy odor. Its common name comes from the belief that it can relieve toothache. Chewing the roots does produce a numbing sensation in the tongue and gums. This species is generally associated with pineywoods and was only collected once from a prairie remnant in the pineywoods area.

Savannas, bogs, and pinelands, wet pine barrens.