Rabbit Tobacco is a wildflower in the Asteraceae family that thrives in dry sandy soils of Eastern North America. It is commonly known as Sweet Everlasting because its white tubular flowers linger long after the leaves have died, giving it the appearance of blooming in winter.
Like mullein, the leaves of this plant were often added to regular tobacco to make it last longer. Rabbit tobacco was favored because, when dried, it exudes a pleasant maple syrup scent. Smoking the plant or using its leaves in infusions has long been a folk remedy for clearing congestion.
“Pillows stuffed with the flowers of rabbit tobacco were believed to help with asthma,” says Brandon Weston in Ozark Folk Magic.
“Rabbit tobacco smoke is said to be able to cleanse evil out of a space or off of a person. Baths made from the leaves and flowers are used for a similar purpose. Because the plant is associated with eternal life, it’s said that the smoke from rabbit tobacco helps ease the dead into a better afterlife, and it can even calm angry and vengeful ghosts.”
