Gathered Grasses

Sweet Grass & Palmetto Leaves

Geechee woman weaving a sweetgrass basket.

Grasses and Palmetto leaves were intentionally woven into the ceremony meadows and bridal bouquet to pay homage to the trade of The Gullah Geechee and serve as a reminder of our connection to the earth, and ground the couple in their new journey together.

The leaves of this grass are used by the Gullah community, descendants of enslaved Africans in the South Carolina coastal area, as the base material for their coiled basketry.  The Gullah are a recognized cultural group with distinctive sociological traditions.  The craft of making these baskets came from the slave’s African homelands and has been passed down through the generations.  The raw materials used were harvested locally and include sweetgrass leaves, longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) needles, and needlegrass or black rush (Juncus roemerianus) stems.  Clusters of these base materials were sewn together with narrow strips cut from the leaves of saw palmetto (Sabal palmetto) plants.  The original purpose of these baskets was entirely functional, mainly to carry out rice production activities; however, they are now recognized as an art form and their marketing provides a major source of income for the Gullah basketmakers.


Source: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/plant-materials/news/sweetgrass