Verbascum is a genus of over 450 species of flowering plants, common namemullein (/ˈmʌlɪn/[3]), in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae. They are native to Europe and Asia, with the highest species diversity in the Mediterranean.[4][5]
Mullein or "mullein leaf" often refers to the leaves of Verbascum thapsus, the great or common mullein, which is frequently used in herbal medicine.
Description
Verbascum are biennial or perennial plants, rarely annuals or subshrubs, growing to 0.5 to 3.0 m (1.6 to 9.8 ft) tall. The plants first form a dense rosette of leaves at ground level, subsequently sending up a tall flowering stem. Biennial plants form the rosette the first year and the stem the following season. The leaves are spirally arranged, often densely hairy, though glabrous (hairless) in some species. The flowers have five symmetrical petals; petal colours in different species include yellow (most common), orange, red-brown, purple, blue, or white. The fruit is a capsule containing numerous minute seeds.
Cultivation
Dark mullein (V. nigrum)
In gardening and landscaping, the mulleins are valued for their tall narrow stature and for flowering over a long period of time, even in dry soils.
Mullein moth, a species in the order Lepidoptera which feeds on Verbascum and other plants.
References
^Nathaniel Lord Britton; Addison Brown (1947). An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions from Newfoundland to the Parallel of the Southern Boundary of Virginia, and from the Atlantic Ocean Westward to the 102d Meridian. Vol. 3 (2nd ed.). New York Botanical Garden. p. 173.
