Verbascum thapsus

Verbascum thapsus is a species of mullein native to Europe, northern Africa, and Asia. It is a hairy biennial plant that can grow to 2 m tall or more. Its small, yellow flowers are densely grouped on a tall stem. It grows in a wide variety of habitats, but prefers well-lit, disturbed soils.

About Verbascum thapsus in brief

Verbascum thapsus, the great mullein or common mullein, is a species of mullein native to Europe, northern Africa, and Asia, and introduced in the Americas and Australia. It is a hairy biennial plant that can grow to 2 m tall or more. Its small, yellow flowers are densely grouped on a tall stem, which grows from a large rosette of leaves. It grows in a wide variety of habitats, but prefers well-lit, disturbed soils, where it can appear soon after the ground receives light. Although commonly used in traditional medicine, there are no approved drugs from this plant. It has been used to make dyes and torches. V. thapsus was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in his 1753 Species Plantarum. The specific epithet had had been Theophrasthet thapsosus, an unspecified herb from the Greek settlement of Thapsos, near Syracuse, Sicily, though it is often assimilated to the modern city of Tunis. At no time was no type specimen specified as the practice practice, as the species arose later, in the 19th century. The species’ chromosome number is 2n = 36. The plant produces small, ovoid capsules that split open by way of two valves, each capsule containing large numbers of minute, brown seeds less than 1 mm in size, marked with longitudinal ridges. A white-flowered form, V.  Thapsus f. candicans, is known to occur. Flowering lasts up to three months from early to late summer, with flowering starting at the bottom of the spike and progressing irregularly upward.

Each flower opens for part of a day and only a few open at the same time around the stem. It is not a competitive species, being intolerant of shade from other plants and unable to survive tilling. Although individuals are easy to remove by hand, populations are difficult to eliminate permanently. The only type specimen for Verbascum Thapsus species had been designated as type specimen 242, the only European specimen for the species. The American specimen was designated type 242, which has led to considerable phenotypical variation, which led to the plant acquiring many synonyms over the years, including V. Thapus barium and V. Thapus v. Barium, the American specimen for the species had been designated type 242, the only European  specimen for the species for the classification of the genus V thapus. The plant is a common weedy plant that spreads by prolifically producing seeds, and has become invasive in temperate world regions. In the eastern part of its range in China, it is, however, only reported to grow up to 1. 5 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.

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