How mullein has traditionally lit the darkest nights.
A fuzzy cluster of mullein that hasn't shot up its yellow flowers yet. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Good morning. Today is duodi, the 2nd of Thermidor, Year CCXXXI. We celebrate le bouillon blanc, a witchy weed that's used for either torches or toilet paper.
💡
This soft plant grows all over the American southwest where I grew up, and it was always known as "Indian toilet paper" back then, pointed out as a good emergency leaf to use when you gotta go in the woods. Apparently some regions called it "cowboy toilet paper" which definitely communicates the same thing while feeling less icky to say. There's a weird difference, though. Places that use "Indian" seems to believe the best part of the plant to use is the big, broad leaf, which indeed resembles a sheaf of paper and can be neatly folded around your fingers for wiping. But places that use "cowboy," I was shocked to discover while researching this, recommend using the tall flower stalk, which you apparently strip the flowers from and then swipe through your crack like a soft corn cob? I suppose either one works, but I'd go with the leaves, myself.
Mullein is a very special plant, one of nature's most remarkable product innovations. While it hasn't had "new and improved" slapped on its packaging at any point, people keep coming up with uses for this super-soft plant that grows quickly in dry places. In addition to the personal hygiene mentioned above, you can also put mullein in the clothing aisle as North American Indians and colonists alike used it to line their shoes to keep their feet warm in winter. But for the most infamous use of mullein, we need to travel to the hardware aisle, because it's a perfect torch.
