Stats

Lifespan: Biennial
Size: Medium
Diet: Photosynthetic
Biome: Temperate grassland
Range: Europe and Asia
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Seeds
Defense: Toxins
Status: Common

About

A striking biennial of roadsides and disturbed fields, common mullein spends its first year as a low rosette of large, velvety gray-green leaves before sending up a tall, dense flower spike — sometimes two meters tall — packed with hundreds of tiny yellow blooms.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

Learn more

Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Scrophulariaceae
Genus: Verbascum
Species: Verbascum thapsus