Verbascum thapsus
Verbascum thapsus
L., Sp. Pl. 177. 1753; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 4: 250. 1885; Collett, Fl. Siml. ed. 2: 346. 1921 (Reprint 1980); Penn., Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. Monogr. 5: 40. 1943; Kaur & Sharma, Fl. Sirmaur 471. 2004; Dhaliwal & Sharma, Fl. Kullu Dist. 489. 1999; Singh & Sharma, Fl. Chamba Dist. 517. 2006; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 18: 5.
Annuals. Stem erect, angular, branched upwards, winged with decurrent leaf bases, up to 1.5 m tall, densely covered with yellow-grey stellate hairs. Leaves basal (radical) and cauline. Basal and lower cauline leaves petiolate; leaf blade oblanceolate-oblong, 10-30 cm long, margin crenate; other cauline leaves 15-45 cm long gradually decreasing in size upward, sessile, oblong to ovate-oblong, base decurrent into wings (up to 14 cm); lateral nerves 8-10 pairs. Flowers +/- actinomorphic, bisexual, 5-merous, hypogynous, yellow, nearly sessile, (pedicel ca. 1 mm long) 1-2 cm long and 1.8-2.5 cm across. Fascicles of 3-5 flowers in axils of bracts crowded in solitary, terminal, cylindric, unbranched (occasionally branched), densely stellate-tomentose, 10-40 (60) cm long spikes; inflorescence axis solid and stout, 2-2.5 cm across. Bracts leafy, 7-10 mm long, ovate- oblong, acuminate. Bracteoles 6-8 mm long, ovate-oblong, acuminate, stellate hairy. Calyx 10 mm long; tube 4-5 mm long; lobes 5, lanceolate, acute, woolly outside. Corolla yellow, ca. 1.5 cm long, concave, stellate tomentose; tube very short, ca. 5 mm long; limb 5-lobed, lobes ca. 10 mm x 8 mm, spreading, nearly equal, obovate, obtuse. Stamens 5; filaments of 3 upper (posterior) stamens short (8 mm long) and with long, white dense hairs, and of 2 lower (anterior) stamens longer (ca. 10 mm long) and with long scanty hairs; anther lobes divergent at base. Carpels 2, syncarpous; ovary 2 mm long, hairy, 2-locular, many ovules per loculus, axile placentation; style 7-8 mm long, basal part hairy; stigma capitate, bilobed, stellate tomentose. Capsule 7-8 mm x 6-7 mm, ovoid-globose, didymous, septicidally 2-valved or dehiscence through pores. Seeds many, oblong, ca. 5 mm long, truncate at both ends, rugose, brownish
Common Names: : Great Mullein, Adam’s Flannel, Beggar’s Blanket, Candlewick Plant, Hag’s Taper, Jupiter’s Staff, Molene, Mullein, Velvet Dock, Velvet Plant, Woolly Mullein.
