MOTH MULLEIN

(Verbascum Blattaria) Figwort family



Flowers - Yellow, or frequently white, 5-parted, about 1 in.

broad, marked with brown; borne on spreading pedicles in a long,

loose raceme; all the filaments with violet hairs; 1 protruding

pistil. Stem: Erect, slender, simple, about 2 ft. high, sometimes

less, or much taller. Leaves: Seldom present at flowering time;

oblong to ovate, toothed, mostly sessile, smooth.

Preferred Habitat - Dry, open wasteland; roadsides, fields.

Flowering Season - June-November.

Distribution - Naturalized from Europe and Asia, more or less

common throughout the United States and Canada.



Quite different from its heavy and sluggish looking sister is

this sprightly, slender, fragile-flowered mullein. "Said to repel

the cockroach (Blatta). hence the name Blattaria; frequented by

moths, hence moth mullein." (Britton and Brown's "Flora.") Are

the latter frequent visitors? Surely there is nothing here to a

moth's liking. New England women used to pack this plant among

woolen garments in summer to keep out the tiny clothes moths. The

flower, whose two long stamens and pistil protrude as from the

great mullein's blossom, and whose filaments are tufted with

violet wool footholds - unnecessary provisions for moths, which

rarely alight on any flower, but suck with their wings in motion

- are cross-fertilized by pollen-collecting bees and flies as

described in the account of the great mullein.



"Of beautiful weeds quite a long list might be made without

including any of the so-called wild flowers," says John

Burroughs. "A favorite of mine is the little moth mullein that

blooms along the highway, and about the fields, and maybe upon

the edge of the lawn." Even in winter, when the slender stem, set

with round brown seed-vessels, rises above the snow, the plant is

pleasing to the human eye, as it is to that of hungry birds.