Common Mullein, Our Lord's Candle

Scrophulariaceae

LIFE FORM: Biennial

NATIVITY: Eurasia

VEGETATIVE CHARACTERISTICS:

Forms a basal rosette of large, woolly leaves over a foot in diameter during its first year and a tall unbranched flower stalk that grows to 5 or 6 feet tall in the second year; entire plant is densely hairy and greenish-grey in color.

FLOWERS:

Sessile, yellow flowers are produced on an elongated inflorescence from June through August.

FRUIT/DISPERSAL AGENTS:

Reproduces from seed which germinates in fall or spring; seeds can survive buried in the soil for hundreds of years, germinating when brought to the surface.

ECOLOGICAL PREFERENCE:

Grows best on sandy, dry sites with periodic disturbance, especially steep slopes. Prefers minimally maintained public parks and open space; rock outcrops and stone walls; unmowed highway banks and median strips with frequent salt applications; railroad tracks with ballast substrate.

ENVIRONMENTAL FUNCTION:

Disturbance-adapted colonizer.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:

Used in European folk medicine as a tea for treating ailments; flower stalk dipped in wax were once used as candles. Included by Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in his five volume herbal, De Materia Medica, which was written in the first century AD and remained in active use into the 1600s.