MOTH MULLEIN 



V etbascum blattaria L. 



June - July The mulleins came over from Europe and gi'ew 



Uplands, pastures readily in the American landscape. They are orna- 

 mental, but even though some of their clan have, 

 been civilized to the extent that they appear in nursery and seed catalogs 

 and are planted in some of the best gardens, wild mulleins inevitably 

 seem to be known as weeds. 



A moth mullein in an u])land pasture may be as interesting as a 

 moth mullein in a garden, and it has the added advantage of being in 

 its chosen haunt. The slim wand-like stems on which the moth mullein 

 flowers are arranged bend in the upland Avind but do not break; they 

 have that quality of resilience which open country plants must have or 

 suffer ruin. The leaves are dark gi-een, deeply cut. alternate. The flowers 

 take over the upper half of the stem and stand out from it, each on its 

 own little stem well away from its neighbor. The buds are neatly divided 

 in five parts with the five sepals makiiig a star around the enclosed petals. 

 The flower opens broadly with five rounded petals and a center whose 

 stamens are thickly furred with long purple-red hairs. Thei'e are two 

 kinds of wild moth nuilleins, the yellow and the white, and the two sel- 

 dom are found in the same fields. Both are fertilized ])y small moths 

 which come in the twilight to seek the pale flowers of moth mullein, 

 and sometimes the moths themselves are found asleep in the cupped 

 flowers when the sun comes up next morm'ng. 



Moth mullein is a summer flower which blooms at its ])est in June, 

 then sends up new flower stems later in the summer for a burst of sec- 

 ondary bloom. The dried stems and seed pods remain in the pastures 

 and roadsides all winter long. 



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