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Scientific Name
Synonyms
Family
Common Names
Origin
Naturalised Distribution
Habitat
Habit
Distinguishing Features
Stems and Leaves
Flowers and Fruit
Reproduction and Dispersal
Environmental Impact
Legislation
Management
Similar Species
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Click on images to enlarge

infestation (Photo: Rob and Fiona Richardson)

habit prior to flowering (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

habit in flower (Photo: Trevor James)

habit of old plant (Photo: Jackie Miles)

lower leaves (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

close-up of leaf (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of leaf underside (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of winged stem (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)

upper leaves (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

elongated flower cluster (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of yellow flowers (Photo: Trevor James)

close-up of immature fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

close-up of seeds (Photo: Steve Hurst at USDA PLANTS Database)

young plants (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

the white-flowered form of this species, which is often known as Verbascum thapsus forma candicans (Photo: Sheldon Navie)

Verbascum thapsus

Scientific Name

 Verbascum thapsus L.

Synonyms

Verbascum blattaria L. (misapplied)
Verbascum schraderi Meyer
Verbascum thapsus L. subsp thapsus

Family

Scrophulariaceae

Common Names

Aaron's rod, big taper, blanket weed, blanket-leaf, candle-wick, candlewick, common mullein, devil's-tobacco, flannel leaf, flannel leaved mullein, flannel plant, flannel-leaf, flannelleaf, flannelplant, great mullein, hag taper, hedge taper, iceleaf, Jacob's staff, Jacob's-staff, mullein, shepherd's club, torches, velvet dock, velvet plant, velvet-leaf, velvetplant, wild tobacco, woolly mullein

Origin

Native to the Azores, the Madeira Islands, Canary Islands, Europe, the middle-east, western and northern Asia, and the Indian Sub-continent.  

Naturalised Distribution

Widely naturalised in southern and eastern Australia (i.e. in south-eastern Queensland, New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, south-eastern South Australia and the coastal districts of south-western Western Australia). Also naturalised on Norfolk Island.

Widely naturalised overseas, including in tropical Asia, La Réunion, New Zealand, North America (i.e. Alaska, the USA and Canada), Hawaii and southern South America.

Habitat

A weed of pastures, roadsides, railways, disturbed sites, waste areas, stony river-beds and cultivation in temperate, sub-tropical and sometimes also semi-arid regions.

Habit

A large, but short-lived (i.e. annual or biennial), herbaceous plant growing up to 3 m in height, but usually 1-2 m tall. It is a very upright (i.e. erect) plant, but initially grows as a basal rosette of leaves (up to 60 cm across).

Distinguishing Features

Stems and Leaves

This plant usually only has a single, upright (i.e. erect), thick, main stem (although it may rarely produce a few branches in the upper leaf forks). These stems are densely hairy (i.e. pubescent) and they are somewhat 'winged' in nature.

The leaves are greyish-green or silvery in colour and woolly in nature, due to the presence of a dense covering of short, star-shaped (i.e. stellate) hairs. Rosette leaves are egg-shaped in outline (i.e. ovate) or oval (i.e. elliptic) in shape, shortly-stalked (i.e. petiolate) or stalkless (i.e. sessile), and usually very large (8-50 cm long and 2.5-14 cm wide). Stem (i.e. cauline) leaves are alternately arranged and reduce in size towards the top of the plant (up to 40 cm long and 10 cm wide). These leaves are also egg-shaped in outline (i.e. ovate) or oval (i.e. elliptic) in shape, but tend to be somewhat narrower than the rosette leaves. They are stalkless (i.e. sessile) and the 'wings' that are formed down the stem arise from their bases (i.e. they are decurrent). All leaves have prominent veins on their undersides and have entire or slightly toothed (i.e. crenate or crenulate) margins.

Flowers and Fruit

The flowers (12-30 mm across) are densely arranged in a large elongated cluster at the top of the stems (i.e. in a terminal spike-like raceme). These flower clusters are very hairy (i.e. woolly) and are 20-100 cm long. The numerous yellow flowers are arranged in groups of 1-7 above small, leafy, bracts and each is borne on a very short stalk (i.e. pedicel) that is only 1-5 mm long. These flowers have five petals, that are fused at the base, five greyish hairy sepals (6-12 mm long) and five stamens (10-15 mm long). they also have an ovary topped with a style and stigma. Flowering occurs mostly during spring, summer and early autumn.

The fruit is a rounded (i.e. globular) or egg-shaped (i.e. ovoid) capsule (7-10 mm long and 3-6 mm wide) that is covered in tiny hairs. These fruit turn from green to brown as they mature and contain numerous tiny seeds. The seeds (about 1 mm long and 0.5 mm wide) are reddish-brown, brown or dark grey in colour, rod-shaped (i.e. cylindrical), and roughly textured (i.e. pitted and ridged).

Reproduction and Dispersal

Reproduction is entirely by seeds, and these are easily spread due to their very small size.

Potential dispersal agents include wind, water, animals, and vehicles. Seeds may also be spread in mud and as a contaminant of agricultural produce.

Environmental Impact

Great mullein (Verbascum thapsus) is regarded and an environmental weed in Victoria, and as a minor or potential environmental weed in New South Wales, the ACT and Queensland.

Legislation

This species is declared under legislation in the following states and territories:

Management

For information on the management of this species see the following resources:

Similar Species

Great mullein (Verbascum thapsus) is similar to twiggy mullein (Verbascum virgatum), moth mullein (Verbascum blattaria) and cretan mullein (Verbascum creticum). These species can be distinguished by the following differences: