Cloudgrass

Cloudgrass is a common plains grass found in the twilight zone of Oabos, just lightward of the brutal storm bands. The long grass is topped by a line of three soft puffs, resembling small clouds. These fluffs are the outer lining of the plant's three seed clusters, and how the grass gets its name. The seed clusters contain 20-30 small seeds each surrounded by air and the fluffy pappus that forms the cloud-like appearance.
While cloudgrass can propagate through its root system expanding the grass out from its edges, that is a slow process which struggles to keep up with the damage when strong storms tear up the plains. Instead, when the strong winds that herald the storms blow in, large groupings of the seed clusters are lifted off the grass and float through the sky with the breezes. The pappus of the seed clusters can keep the sheets of cloudgrass seed clusters in the air for a very long time. The sheets usually do not fall back down to the ground until the strong storm winds die down, and travel with these winds on the edge of the storms until that time. If the storm moves over that cloudgrass too quickly and includes rain, the pappus sheets will get wet and loose their light fluffy nature. Any seed clusters soaked in this way quickly take root wherever they land.
The large pappus sheets floating in the stormfronts are what cloudgrass is best known for, and the sake of the grass's name. The seed clusters grow throughout the year and are naturally harvested by storms. People living in the plains harvest these sheets once they settle after the storms leave. Both the pappus and and seeds are valuable for different reasons, and benefit the villages that are able to harvest them regularly.
When the 'clouds' of cloudgrass are collected in the aftermath of storms on the plains, whole villages will go out into the fields with wagons and huge baskets. The clouds are very light, making it easy to collect large amounts all at once. Once all of the seed clusters are collected they are brought back to the village in wagons piled high with the plant material and held down by large sheets of cloudweave. When the cloudgrass seedpods are brought back to the village any children or elderly who were not able to help with the collection also come out to join everyone else. Most villages consider the day after a storm leaves to be a harvest festival for the cloudgrass. All of the seedpods are brought into the village center, and every villager will help to separate the seeds from their pappus casings.
While cloudgrass is a very prolific plant, it is difficult to know exactly how much of the plant would be available each year. As such, part of the harvest festival involves crafters displaying their work since the previous harvest. This serves both to market their wares and allocate the harvest throughout the village.

Pappus Usage

Cloudgrass pappus is used for spinning into thread for fabrics. Cloudgrass fabrics, cloudweave, are light but can be layered to create very warm clothing that is not very heavy. With few layers cloudweave is very light and airy and can wick away moisture. As additional layers are added the fabric is able to hold more and more heat while still wicking away any moisture that forms. It takes many layers before cloudweave becomes heavy, and the bulk of the material usually becomes an issue long before the weight.
Cloudweave thread is sometimes braided and corded after spinning, rather than being immediately woven into its most well-known like fabric. These cloudweave cords are then woven into rugs or tapestries. The increased time and material needed to work with cloudweave cord leads many villages to keep the corded fabrics within the village even when given the opportunity to sell them. Due to this, cloudweave is a well know "country fabric" that has many uses but is not very common in other regions while while the corded fabric is not seen outside the plains regions at all.

Seed Usage

Cloudgrass seeds are collected from their clusters as part of the harvest and set aside for the village cooks and merchants to work with. Across Oabos, the seeds are what cloudgrass is most well known for. Cloudgrass seed is a potent spice, and one of the main exports of many plains villages. The spice is made from grinding the seeds into a fine powder and quickly sealing it to avoid letting any moisture in. Some of the spice is left in this simple ground state, and some is roasted. Ground cloudgrass seed is a very rich dark blue color, while the roasted seeds loose some of the dark blue color and take on a green tint.
Cloudgrass seed has a very light flavor that leaves behind a mild tingling sensation in the mouth after eating it. Roasting the spice adds a bit of heat to the flavor and a mild increase to the stimulant effect, while slightly shortening how long the tingling sensation lasts. When the spice was first discovered, it was thought that the tingling sensation was an indication that the plant was in some way toxic and should not be eaten. Over time it was discovered that the sensation is actually a fast acting simulant that reacts when being eaten. The tingling sensation is closer to a jolt of energy running through the mouth of the eater rather than the tingling caused by losing sensation. The sensation only lasts for a brief time, but the stimulant effects of cloudgrass seed last for about one bell. The stimulant effect of the spice is rather mild and has no long term effects on the body unless consumed so often that the body develops a reliance on it. This is more likely with the roasted seeds, which are also less commonly used.
The spice is commonly used in cool or cold dishes to increase the refreshing taste and nature of the food. It can be found on many light salads and in some frozen treats. Cloudgrass seed is a more common spice as you move further away from Chronwhorl, due to its susceptibility to fading when exposed to Radiance. This is increased further once the seeds are ground. The spice is only found among the very rich who are not affiliated with the Order in Chronwhorl, due to the difficulty in keeping the spice fresh. For the spice to be able to retain any of its effects in the area covered by the Radiant Disk it must remain sealed in a dark container, and if passible be exposed to some source of Oas. The food it is used in must also be prepared in the dark to avoid fading the spice during preparation. The spice is commonly folded into foods so that even once prepared it has as little direct exposure to Radiance as possible. Even prepared in this way, the spice will loose its flavor and effects within a tenth of a bell.
Some cloudgrass seeds collected during the harvest festival are inevitably premature, and are simply pulled off the grasses too early by a storm. Premature seeds to not have the same flavor and effects as matured seeds, but retain the same rich color when ground. These seeds are put aside and used to create pigments for dyes and paints. Pigments made from the seeds produce the same rich blue color as the ground seeds and are a common dye in the plains regions. The roasted seeds produce a rich turquoise when used to make a pigment. Some of both varieties of pigments are sold to other regions, but they suffer the same fading effect within bells of direct exposure to Radiance.
The spice and pigments can be somewhat protected from Radiance by keeping the seeds in a sealed jar and grinding them fresh for use. However, the plains villages suffered from too many merchants demanding all of the raw cloudgrass seeds at a low price for several years and took to grinding all the seeds immediately during the harvest festival so that any traveling merchants would not reach the village after a storm before they were ground. Some seeds are always saved aside for these direct sales, but the villages set the price much higher to match the demand for the small crop of unground seeds.

Grass Usage

The cloudgrass itself is also used by the plains villages, for weaving sturdier objects such as mats, baskets, and shoes. After many cyclyes of seed generation the cloudgrass blades will stiffen and brown slightly. This is when the grass is harvested and mats of the wet seed clusters are lain to replenish the grass in that spot. The grass grows very quickly, but takes several weeks to reach full maturity. Most villages develop a harvestuing cycle for the full cloudgrass plant, moving accross the plain and leaving only a small patch growing at any given time.