Wood millet

Milium effusum

Carl von Linné, or Carolus Linnaeus, wrote that the wood millet had a good smell; therefore, young girls often gathered bunches of this plant. People also used to smoke the wood millet instead of tobacco. Other tobacco plants in the north were the milk parsley, angelica, alpine sow-thistle and yellow water lily. The dried roots, leaves and blossoms of these flowers were smoked as tobacco and preserved in pouches made from the skin of the red-throated diver.

The wood millet is a perennial grass that grows as high as one and a half metres. It has nodding leaves, and the inflorescence is sparse. It is quite common in Finland – especially in groves. The sweet smell of the plant comes from coumarin, and it grows stronger when the plant is dried. However, it is not as strong as in sweet grasses.