Posted by Stephanie Dole on February 2, 2007

Q: This might seem silly...Are you familiar with "toilet paper weed"? I would like the real name of this plant and to find out more about it. My husband claims there was a special weed they used for hygiene purposes if they were out hiking and not near a bathroom.

State: Indiana

A: Stephanie,

Oh, I wish you had given me a description of the plant - there are so many possibilities. To the best of my knowledge ( I also asked another very experienced naturalist here in New York) there is no specific "toilet paper weed" that I know of. There are all kinds of plants that CAN be used and even moss is reasonably good but it doesn't sound like what you're after. When I read your question I had an immediate thought as to what you might be talking about. I grew up in northwestern Ohio and we had lots of an interesting plant called Common Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) growing around the local farms. This plant is a biennnial which means it has a rosette of leaves close to the ground in its first year and in its second year sends up a tall stalk with small yellow flowers. This plant has velvety-soft, pale green leaves (these can be quite large) and even has some soothing properties in its leaves too. Common Mullein is an introduced plant from Europe and wouldn't be found in the woods but in more open fields, forest edges, roadsides and other disturbed areas. Share this with your husband and see if this sounds right. I tried to google a photo of this plant but had no luck. Any field guide to plants of the Northeast should give you more info. Thanks for asking and let's hope I've nailed it for you.

John Wiessinger ( February 3, 2007)