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Common Mullein

Common Mullein

Verbascum thapsus

Identify the Common Mullein from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Common

Common Mullein is a tall, two‑year wildflower with a candle‑like head of yellow blooms and soft, grey, woolly leaves. It is often seen in sunny, dry, disturbed places such as roadsides, rail embankments and waste ground.

Did you know?

  • People once used its dried flower stalk as a torch by dipping it in tar or tallow.
  • Each flower opens for only a day or two, but the long flower head can keep blooming for weeks.

About the species

Identification

A two‑year plant. In the first year it forms a low circle of large, soft, felt‑like grey leaves. In the second year it sends up a straight, usually unbranched stalk 30–150 cm tall, covered in the same thick hairs. Stem leaves get smaller upward and their bases run down along the stem, giving it a slightly winged look. Flowers are bright yellow, flat‑faced, about 1.2–2.5 cm across, crowded into a tall, club‑like cluster at the top. Later it makes small dry capsules with many tiny seeds. Dark mullein is darker green and often shorter. Flowers in Finland from July to September.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

meadow

Flowering

Jul–Sep

About the habitat

Prefers sunny, open, dry ground with poor or sandy soil. Found on meadows and fallow fields, rocky ledges, gravelly places, roadsides, railways and other waste ground.

Sources

Photo: Fischer.H, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Königskerze IMG 6063.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Kaskadian kasveja - Kaksisirkkaiset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39577

Text: Pinkka: Kasvitieteen retkeily Ahvenanmaalle - Nåtö ja Harskatan, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39577

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukontulikukka

See also