Great Mullein (New Jersey and Minnesota Combined)

Verbascum thapsus Origin: Afro-Eurasia Improvement status: Wild Seeds per packet: ~150 Germination tested 11/2024: 53% Life cycle: Biennial Mullein is a very well-known and highly interesting plant, naturalized in North America and around the world, with a long history of use by humans. Its many names are indicative of its value and its hold on the imagination of generations of foragers, herbalists, and others: besides "great mullein" and "common mullein," it has been or is known variously as "flannel plant," "poor man's blanket," "Bullocks lungwort," "Adams-rod," "hig candlewick," "velvet dock," "ice-leaf," "feltwort," "clot," "torches," and — most graphically — "cowboy toilet paper"! With its wide, distinctive, fuzzy leaves, mullein is a fixture in many landscapes. Many consider it a weed, but it is also increasingly planted intentionally. Recently it has experienced a renaissance among herbalists in this country, in particular for its purported ability to improve lung health. We us