The ID Process
I identify plants for my own purposes by smell. I was always a tire-feuille (leaf puller) and when the native knowledge came to me, it worked because I had known plants by smell since I was a child. The smell of a plant tells me much of what I need to know, but I would’t use a plant seriously or on anyone else without a level of certainty that comes with formal identification experience. My main tool of identification was the Vermillionville Healer’s Guide. I also used Richard Guidry’s Les Arbres de la Louisiane, The Charles Bienvenue thesis, elders of my community, comparison, books, Native Ethnobotany website, google searches and plant ID apps that were becoming more popular and reliable. My identification process could go on for days, weeks, months or years, and always had multiple levels depending on the season and environmental conditions. I liked to know the plant in all her seasons. I knew the old names and remedies, could feel the plant’s energy and hypothesize the uses, but as a teacher I knew the Latin names were a code that I had to know. All in all, I had reliable instincts.
When identifying the rabbit tobacco I had to take into consideration all of the common names both in French and English and a few Latin names that had changed and evolved over the years. These plants are in the aster family and all take the common names of rabbit tobacco, everlasting or cudweed. Sometimes one specimen had all three common names depending on area.
There was pearly everlasting (anaphalis margaritacea) and prairie everlasting (antennaria neglecta). The plant in my field was fragrant white rabbit tobacco, pseudoghaphalium obtusifolium, and not the early rabbit tobacco (gamochaeta purpurea) that was so common to this place. The Healer’s guide listed patte de chat (gnaphalium purpurea) and herbe dentale (gamochaeta purpurea) as two separate plants. I was confused because they seemed like the same plant and their latin names are synonymous. Neither of these was my pseudognaphalium obsusifolium, so I began to realize she wasn’t listed in my main sources.
According to the North Carolina Plant Extension:
Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium
Common Name(s):
Previously known as:
Gnaphalium obtusifolium
Gnaphalium obtusifolium var. praecox
Pseudognaphalium
While I was still trying to decide exactly what I had, I used it, made teas, smudges, carried it in an acorn locket around my neck, and sat with it morning, noon and night. I flagged and celebrated every new plant I found. She beamed and I was happy to keep my promise to her.
In 2021 I had three plants that I tended and weeded around for the first time. In 2022 that number was over 200 volunteer-only plants. I identified the American Painted Lady butterfly (vanessa virginiensis) and larvae on the plants. This manicuring of the plant mirrored the self care I was also giving myself at the time, because my life was about to change drastically and I had no idea.
Part 4: The Identification Process
Part 5: Traiteurs from Down the Bayou
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