Milky oats are the fresh seed tops of the oat plant, Avena sativa, a cereal grass in the Poaceae family native to Eurasia and now widely cultivated in temperate regions. They are harvested while the immature seeds still contain a milky latex, and these fresh tops are the part traditionally used in herbal tinctures and nutritive preparations.
In Western herbal practice, milky oats are distinct from oatstraw, even though both come from the same plant. Milky oat tops are most often extracted fresh, while oatstraw is more commonly dried and infused as a mineral-rich tea.
