Life Everlasting aka Rabbit Tobacco is a member of the ASTER family. It's leaves are pale grey on one side and brown underneath with white flowers. It is harvested through the winter when it's very easy to identify. In the winter months mostly everything has gone dormant, you will always find Rabbit Tobacco. Just the tea alone drunk daily is heavenly and it doesn't need sugar. A spoonful of dried leaves in an infusion reduces the length of any viral infection. It dries up the lungs and pushes phlegm out the body. Science finds that the healing chemicals in Life Everlasting contain tepenes and demonstrate the ability to positively affect cancers and infections in the body. But….ancestors already knew this right? Gullah - Geechee folks been knowed this.
Mvskoke and Cherokee relatives use life everlasting in sweat baths and burned the whole plant to purge a space of bad spirits. If you put halobaktchee in the bath with you, it's nice cause it's purging and protecting you at the same time.
I sometimes put the tea in the dehumidifier, it's like giving the house a sweat :)
Also, the last use, like all kids growing up in the South, my Dad & his brothers used to smoke it for fun. Medicinally speaking though, it is smoked to clear out lungs and relief chest congestion. #folksways #lifeeverlasting #rabbittobacco #honey
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