Herb to Know: Mullein

By The Grit Editors
Published on January 20, 2021
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by Adobe Stock/Aga7ta
Mullein’s flat, open flowers grow in dense, club-shaped clusters.

Versatile, fuzzy mullein is a gardener’s friend, an herbalist’s delight, and an engineering marvel all on its own. The genus Verbascum consists of about 300 species that are native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. It belongs to the snapdragon family, but the flowers are flat and open, unlike the irregular “dragon faces” of snapdragons. Most species are tall, stout biennials with large leaves and flowers in long terminal spikes. The best-known species among herbalists is the homely but useful common mullein, V. thapsus.

Naturalized mullein is a common weed in most of the United States and Canada, growing in dry fields, waste areas, and dry soils along roadsides.

tall green plant stalk with no blooming flowers among tall wild grasses

Plant History

First-year plants form a rosette of large, velvety leaves up to a foot long. In the second year, a velvety flower spike grows up to 8 feet tall. The stalk has alternate leaves that clasp the stem, an arrangement that directs rainwater down the stem to the roots. From June to September, five-petaled yellow flowers that are 1⁄4 to 1 inch across bloom randomly in a dense, club-shaped terminal cluster. The three upper stamens are short and woolly, and the tiny hairs contain sap that may lure insects to the plant; the pollen produced by these stamens may be eaten by flies, preventing it from fertilizing the flower, or may be carried by bees. The two lower stamens are longer and smooth, and they serve as a failsafe, producing pollen that will self-fertilize the plant if it isn’t visited by enough pollinators.

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