Everlasting

Parts Usually Used

The entire plant

Description of Plant(s) and Culture

Life everlasting is a fragrant, herbaceous annual plant; the erect, branched, white-woolly stem grows 1-3 feet high and bears alternate, sessile, lanceolate leaves that have wavy margins and are dark green above and white-woolly beneath. Yellow flower-heads grow in several terminal panicled clusters from July into September. Other varieties: Low cudweed or marsh cudweed (G. uliginosum) was smoked by Native Americans to cure headaches; Pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) called Pearly everlasting, was once called Lady’s tobacco, has basically the same properties as life everlasting (G.

polycephalum); Sweet everlasting, also called Rabbit tobacco (G. obtusifolium).

Where Found

Grows in dry fields, open pine woods, and clearings in the Atlantic coastal states and west to Kansas and Texas.

Medicinal Properties

Astringent, diaphoretic, febrifuge, pectoral, vermifuge

Legends, Myths and Stories

In Colonial America, pillows were stuffed with native life-everlasting, for its delicate and soothing aroma. The pillows were especially used for consumptive patients. Life everlasting was a popular smoke among European peasants.

Uses

Historically, herbalists administered an infusion of life everlasting as a tea for pulmonary complaints, leukorrhea, and intestinal disorders, including hemorrhage. A cold infusion was traditional for expelling intestinal worms. In homeopathic practice, a tincture was utilized for sciatica, lumbago, and certain forms of arthritis. The fresh juice was historically employed to quell excessive sexual desire.

Externally, practitioners applied fomentations of the plant to bruises, wounds, and ulcers, and utilized the infusion as a mouthwash or gargle for sores of the mouth and throat. Additionally, the dried flowers were incorporated into herb pillows to promote calming effects.

Bibliography

American Folk Medicine , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, 1973 The Complete Medicinal Herbal , by Penelope Ody, Dorling Kindersley, Inc, 232 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, First American Edition, copyright 1993 Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants , by Steven Foster and James A. , Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10000 The Herbalist Almanac , by Clarence Meyer, Meyerbooks, publisher, PO Box 427, Glenwood, Illinois 60425, copyright 1988, fifth printing, 1994 The Herb Book , by John Lust, Bantam Books, 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.

copyright 1974. , 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014, first printed by the United States Government Printing Office, Washington, in 1928, this Dover edition 1974 Indian Herbalogy of North America , by Alma R. , 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023