Eggarton Cottages, Eggarton Lane, Godmersham, Kent, CT4 7DY
Tel/Fax: 01227 730242
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Hardy perennial. Nodding, diamond-shaped flowerheads on long, branching stems, striped in purple-brown. Very attractive grass, useful for dried arrangements. Found in the wild on chalk, grasslands and meadows. Widespread in Britain except for northern Scotland. Also known as Rattling Grass, Maiden Hair and Shivering Grass. Height 2 ft (60 cm). Food plant of the Meadow Brown butterfly.
Under the Doctrine of Signatures, where a plant was used to treat illnesses which it resembled or parts of the body it resembled, Quaking Grass was a remedy for all shaking ailments.
Children in Wiltshire were told that if the grass ever stopped quaking it would turn into silver shillings. Other folklore says that Quaking Grass only grows in places where a young (usually lovelorn) woman has drowned herself. Believed to be unlucky indoors. Some places believe Quaking Grass flourishes where corpses have lain after being dragged from a river.
Plant in sun and well-drained soil.