we are very selective here at dar gitane when it comes to the scent we bring into the places we spend time.  the incense we burn and offer to you are ones we have come to love throughout the years.  these natural sweetgrass braids are the most aromatically pleasing, sensually gratifying, and environmentally sensitive joys we have in our collection. tried and true, you are certain to find the lingering scents of these aromatic botanicals burning within our atelier at dar gitane. 

this is a hardy perennial herb with a sweet vanilla-like fragrance due to the presence of coumarin, sweetgrass is native to europe and north america. The plant grows to a height of about 24 inches, with long leaves that have shiny undersides. its name, hierochloe odorata, literally means "fragrant holy grass," and the plant has been regarded as sacred everywhere it has been grown and harvested. In northern europe, sweetgrass was scattered on the ground in front of churches on saints' days so that a sweet fragrance would be released when people walked inside. among native americans it has a long tradition of use as a smudging herb (healing and purifying incense) in sacred rituals, and is still widely used for that purpose today. some tribes believe it to have been the first plant to cover the earth. the leaves, which can reach two feet in length, are woven to make baskets.

Most often braided and then moistened to release its sweet fragrance, or burned as incense. When burned, the plant smolders, producing clouds of fragrant smoke.