Couch grass Agropyron repens


  • Common Names
  • Couch grass , Twitch grass, witchgrass, dog's grass, scutch, quackgrass
  • Botanical Name
  • Agropyron repens
  • Syn. Elymus repens
  • Family
  • GRAMINACEAE
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Medicinal Uses & Benefits of Couch Grass

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How to Use: Couch grass


Couch grass it valued by herbalists for its mucilage rich rhizome. A tea made from the roots is useful for treating urinary infections because of the herb's broad antibiotic, and diuretic properties. One of the chemical constituents, agropyrone, has been shown to have strong antibiotic properties. Couch grass tea will also soothe and coat an inflamed sore throat, and helps clear phlegm. The herb contains mucilage that helps to clear congestion while it coats the throat.

Preparation Methods & Dosage :Most often taken as a tea, sometimes found in capsule and extract form

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Couch grass Remedies

Couch grass Side Effects: Dog grass is toxic to birds. It may also lower blood sugars in people.

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Plant Description


  • Flowers: Erect spikes bearing 2 rows of flowers
  • Plant Class:Perennial Grass -
  • Leaves: Slendar leaves - sometimes misidentified as Johnson grass
  • Rhizome: The long creeping rhizome is used for it's mucilages in herbal medicine
  • Preferred Habitat:Open grasslands.
  • Flowering Season:
  • Distribution: Americas, northern Asia, Australia, and Europe

How to Grow Couch grass

Couch grass is cursed by gardeners, and blessed by herbalists. Couch grass is considered an invasive weed, and is very hard to remove from garden environments. Thrifty folk can harvest and dry the rhizomes in the spring when clearing it out of the garden and store them against future need. Keep this highly invasive grass tightly contained if you do attempt to grow it.


History and Traditions & Folklore

Couch grass has been used in herbal medicine since classical Greek times. The Romans used it to treat kidney stones and as urinary problems. The common name dog grass comes from the fact that sick dogs will dig up the root and eat it.

Tis under the dominion of Jupiter, and is the most medicinal of all the Quick- grasses. Being boiled and drank, it opens obstructions of the liver and gall, and the stopping of urine, and eases the griping pains of the belly and inflammations; wastes the matter of the stone in the bladder, and the ulcers thereof also. The roots bruised and applied, do consolidate wounds. The seed doth more powerfully expel urine, and stays the lask and vomiting. The distilled water alone, or with a little wormseed, kills the worms in children.
Nicholas Culpeper, 1653

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