| Verbascum pulverulentum | |
|---|---|
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| Plant in flower in Italy | |
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| Stem and leaves in Germany, showing the dense pale hairs | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Lamiales |
| Family: | Scrophulariaceae |
| Genus: | Verbascum |
| Species: | V. pulverulentum |
| Binomial name | |
| Verbascum pulverulentum | |
| Synonyms [1] | |
List
| |
Verbascum pulverulentum, the hoary mullein, [2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Scrophulariaceae. [3] It is native to western, central and southern Europe north to England (where its main range is in East Anglia) and southern Wales. [2] It has been introduced to Austria, Madeira, and Washington state in the USA. [1] [4] It is a specialist on coastal shingle, and so is preadapted to human-influenced habitats such as old quarries and gravel pits, road verges, railway embankments, and similar disturbed stony ground. [5]
It is a stout biennial or monocarpic perennial herb growing up to 1.5 m tall, producing flowers and seeds only once, during its second or a later year. The stems and leaves are densely woolly with pale grey to glaucous pubescence. The flowers are yellow, 18–25 mm diameter, with 5 orange stamens, all the stamen stems with dense white hairs. [6] [7] [2] It can best be distinguished from the similar great mullein (V. thapsus) in all five stamens having dense white hairs on the stem; in V. thapsus, the lower two of the five stamens are hairless or only thinly hairy. [6]
It is the main food plant for the moth Nothris verbascella (Norfolk snout). [8]