Cowgrass
Despite its appearance and name, cowgrass is neither a grass, nor is it consumed by cows. It is actually a succulent with long, thin stalks which resemble grass at great distance, and is avoided by cows because of both its bitter flavor and the distress caused by its sedative and mildly hallucinogenic effects. These symptoms are the source of cowgrass's name, as it is said to induce a cow-like stupor in people who consume it recreationally.
Cowgrass is a fairly hardy desert plant that seems resistant to most weather events and conditions, and completely unbothered by pests. It is actively avoided by most herbivores, and the only animals that seem to regularly interact with it are pollinating insects collecting nectar from the flowers of the mature plants.
Individual plants mature fully in about three years, at which point bright yellow flowers begin to bloom from a central stalk. A mature plant can easily survive having up to half of its stalks harvested, allowing a resourceful harvester to come back to the same patches over time. The Weedpriests of Khasahn are known to farm cowgrass like a crop, harvesting entire plants at a time and replanting them. After harvesting all the stalks of a given plant, the weedpriests will also dry the center core of woody pulp, discarded by most gatherers, and then dissolve the dried core in wood alcohol to separate its fibers for textile uses.
The stalks contain the sedative and hallucinogenic properties cowgrass is sought for, and may be smoked in much the same manner as hemp or tobacco. However, this requires a time consuming drying process, and a labor intensive chopping process. The tough stalks are filled with a gel-like sap that retains moisture to an extreme, and without extensive drying, stalks will smolder rather than burn. Harvested stalks are general allowed to rest for a few days, after which they are generally done actively oozing, and also lose some of their rigidity. These stalks are then gently woven into small, squarish mats of about one foot to a side, or into wrist-thickness plaits, both intended to be placed inside hot, indoor braziers, where they will smolder for hours. The resulting smoke is significantly less irritating to lung, throat and eye than wood smoke, and smells noticeably sweeter, with a note of herbal bitterness.
Geographic Distribution
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