Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium

Lepus sylvaticus

Asteraceae

Can you imagine a “child of today” out behind his mother’s she-shed with pals puffing surreptitiously on a corncob pipe filled with Rabbit-Tobacco?    As a baby boomer,  I regrettably missed that rite of passage;  pals of my age were more likely to puff “Wacky Tobacky.”  But go back one more generation,  and you could readily find kids smoking a genuine “weed,” Rabbit-Tobacco.   My father, who grew up in Depression-era Alachua County,  upon encountering RT a few years ago while we were walking near Vero Beach, reminisced at age almost-90 about smoking Rabbit-Tobacco in the1930s.  Too bad he did not have a pipe in his pocket! The experience was not a long-term habit or way of life, more like something daring kids tried once or twice to be grown-up.    After all, everybody smoked in those days. Here is a recollection on all that: put this in your pipe and smoke it

Rabbit-Tobacco is related to Artichokes, and not to Lucky Strikes.   So why smoke it?   Wellll,  it has a gentle pleasing fragrance.    And soft dry pliant leaves cover its stem.  And It crushes into a pipe and burns nicely.   Rabbit-Tobacco does sort of invite smoking.  Which I am not advocating. 

All of that explains “Tobacco” in the name.  For years I assumed the “Rabbit” part to have come simply from the plant’s habitat shared with bunnies.   But a dive into the Internet today reveals alternative realities.   The species traces back prominently among American Indigenous peoples, some of whom allegedly connected it legendarily with rabbits long before boys smoked behind the barn.  Or, for another explanation, the round white flower heads look like bunny butts. (Personally I doubt that cuddly explanation.)

What interests did people long ago have with this plant?   Even in the ancient Old World, similar close relatives served as remedies.  Rabbit-Tobacco smoke served prehistoric and more-recent Americans for purposes beyond smoking in pipes.  Ancient civilizations burned it like incense for smoky ceremonies, and as an “inhaler” for respiratory discomforts.    One of my favorite traditional uses was to stuff it into pillows for sweet dreams.  Gotta try it!   Teas were made from the foliage as well.

The attractive cut stems are long-lasting, or should I say ever-lasting, as this species and its relatives are called “ever-lastings.”   That’s useful in a vase, where the severed stems continue to perfume the air.   The fragrance does not waft forth evenly over time.  Something variable—temperature?  humidity?—causes the emanations to wax and wane. Such plants waver ethereally on the border between life and death, as a clue to their spiritual symbolism.

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