description
Verbascum thapsus is a biennial plant of the Scrophulariaceae family that
produces a rosette of leaves in its first year of growth. The leaves are
large, up to 50 cm long. The second year, plants normally produce a single
unbranched stem usually 1–2 m tall. The tall pole-like stems end in a dense
spike of flowers that can occupy up to half the stem length. All parts of
the plants are covered with star-shaped trichomes. This cover is
particularly thick on the leaves, giving them a silvery appearance. On
flowering plants the leaves are alternately arranged up the stem. They are
thick and have variation in leaf shape between the upper and lower leaves on
the stem, ranging from oblong to oblanceolate, and reaching sizes up to 50
cm long and 14 cm across (19 inches long and 5 inches wide). After
flowering and seed release the stem and fruits usually persist in winter,
drying into dark brown, stiff structures of densely packed, ovoid-shaped and
dry seed capsules. The plant produces a shallow taproot.
Flowers have five stamens, a 5-lobed calyx tube and a 5-petalled corolla,
the latter bright yellow and an 1.5–3 cm (0.5–1 inch) wide. The flowers are
almost sessile, with very short pedicels (2 mm, 0.08 in). The five stamens
are of two types, with the three upper stamens being shorter, their
filaments covered by yellow or whitish hairs, and having smaller anthers,
while the lower two stamens have glabrous filaments and larger anthers. A
given flower is open only for a single day, opening before dawn and closing
in the afternoon. Flowering lasts for up to three months from early to late
summer.
common names & nomenclature
The word lemon may be Middle Eastern in its origin.
Many of the common names are in reference to the hairiness of the
plant—such as wooly mullein, velvet mullein, hare's
beard and similar.
Also known as:
mullein, great mullein, velvet dock, velvet plant, candlestick, hare’s
beard, ice-leaf, wooly mullein, velvet mullein, blanket mullein, beggar’s
blanket, feltwort, poor man’s blanket, old man’s blanket, our lady’s
blanket, moses’ blanket, shepard’s club, shepard’s staff
