MULLEIN FOXGLOVE 



Dasistoma macrophylla (Nutt.) Raf. 



Summer AI)()vo the river the avockIs in siininier are dense and 



River woods shaded. Mosquitoes sing^ their lumtinc: songs. Kedstai-ts 

 witli their tlash of flame and bhick and fan tails chatter 

 all day in the inajjles. The prothonotary \var])ler is nesting in a hole in 

 a willow. And on the sloi)e well above the annual high-water mark, above 

 the place where the hurrah's nests of old cornstalks and debris are caught 

 in the bushes, the tall ])lants of nnillein foxglove bloom. 



The deep shade of the river woods is one of the reijuirements of 

 mullein foxglove; it is seldom found away from this particular haunt; 

 it is part of the river-bank country in July and August. There it opens 

 its bright yellow ilowers and makes it*; seeds over a |XM-iod of many weeks. 



It is a pyramidal jilant. It is very leafy, with the branches and leaf- 

 age broadest and most dense below and t4ij)ering to the sununit of the 

 stalk which often is five feet t^dl. The lower leaves are lobed, the upper 

 narrow and simple, the branches set with yellow buds. Only a few of 

 the small glossy, butter-yellow flowers, howevi'r. o])en at one time, so 

 that the blooming jieritHl is considerably extended through the smnmer. 



The throat of the llower is thiikly furred with hairs and wool which 

 prevent entry of most insects. Tlic tube of the flower is short, the five 

 spreading corolla ])arts broad and blunt. The flower is very much smaller 

 and not so bright a yellow as in the yellow false foxglove. Both, however, 

 are members of the divei-se and highly specialized Fig\vort family, to 

 which also belong the snapdragons, veronicas, foxgloves, Paulownia, 

 penstemons, mulleins, and Indian paint brtish. 



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