Verbascum thapsus ssp. thapsus

Native of Africa, Asia, and Europe. Introduced and naturalized in North America.

Common and abundant

Moderate moisture to dry. Pastures, meadows, woodland openings, roadsides, railroads, vacant lots, and other disturbed sites. Full sun.

June to October

Yellow

12″ to 80″

This is a 12″ to 80″ tall, erect, biennial forb that rises from a deep, stout taproot and fibrous roots. In the first year it produces a basal rosette of large fuzzy leaves. In the second year it produces a single flowering stalk.

The basal rosette is often showy and can be up to 40″ in diameter, though it is usually much smaller. Basal leaves are soft to the touch, bluish grayish-green, stalked, oblong or inversely lance-shaped, 4″ to 18″ long, and 1″ to 5″ wide. They are tapered at the base and rounded or tapered at the tip. The upper and lower surfaces are densely covered with gray hairs that are branched at the tip in a star-shaped pattern. The margins are wavy and untoothed or shallowly toothed with rounded teeth.

The stems are erect, stout, leafy, and densely covered with gray, star-shaped hairs. They are unbranched below the middle but sometimes branched near the top.

Lower stem leaves are alternate, stalked, oblong to oblong egg-shaped, and mostly untoothed. The blade continues down the leaf stalk as wings. They are otherwise similar to basal leaves. Stem leaves become progressively smaller and shorter stalked as they ascend the stem. Upper stem leaves are stalkless with the leaf blade continuing down the stem to the next leaf below as narrow wings.

The inflorescence is a spike of many flowers at the end of the stem. The spike is densely flowered, cylinder-shaped, 8″ to 20″ long, and ¾″ to 1¼″ wide. It continues to lengthen as the season progresses. It is unbranched but there is sometimes more than one spike. The flowers mostly appear in short-stalked clusters (fascicles). Each fascicle is few-flowered and is subtended by a leaf-like or scale-like, densely hairy appendage (bract).

The flowers are ⅜″ to 1″ in diameter. There are 5 sepals, 5 petals, 5 stamens, and 1 style. The sepals (calyx) are green and densely hairy. They are fused at the base into an approximately 1 ⁄16″ long tube, then separated into 5 lobes. The calyx lobes are lance-shaped, 3 ⁄16″ to ¼″ long, and 1 ⁄16″ to ⅛″ wide at the base. They are shorter than the subtending bracts. The petals are yellow, fused at the base into an approximately 5 ⁄16″ long tube, then separated into 5 rounded, spreading lobes. The 3 lower lobes are somewhat longer than the 2 upper. The stamens have yellow filaments and orange anthers, and are unequal in length. The 3 upper stamens have short, densely hairy filaments and short anthers. The 2 lower stamens have much longer, hairless or nearly hairless filaments and long anthers. The style is green.

The fruit is a broadly egg-shaped, ⅜″ long, hairy capsule with many seeds. The style persists in fruit and is as long as the capsule. The seeds are brown, tiny, and ridged. They are dispersed by wind. The leaves fall away as the fruits ripen but the stalk and fruiting head persist through the winter.

No similar species

Nativity
Common mullein was first introduced into Virginia in the mid-1700’s as a fish poison. It became naturalized and spread quickly, reaching the Pacific coast by 1876.

Subspecies
There are three subspecies of Verbascum thapsus recognized. Only ssp. thapsus occurs in North America.