MULLEIN

Common Mullein (Verbascum thapsis).....Obviously, this was not taken today as flowers in March are uncommon in this area as we are under quite a bit of snow. But warm weather lately is causing a rapid decline in the white stuff.  The following was scrounged from the Internet.

In midsummer, the tall flower stalks of common mullein, Verbascum thapsus, begin to poke up, making this common weed in the family Scrophulariaceae highly noticeable in the road cuts and waste areas where it thrives. Native to Europe, northern Africa and Asia, it was probably introduced to North America several times as a medicinal herb. In the mid‑1700’s it was used in Virginia as a piscicide (fish poison). It spread rapidly and had become so well established by 1818 that a flora of the East Coast at that time described it as a native. It had reached the Midwest by 1839 and became widely naturalized on the Pacific Coast by 1876. Today common mullein is distributed throughout the U.S. and Canada wherever the growing season is at least 140 days and rainfall is sufficient (50-150 cm), especially on dry sandy soils.
Common mullein is typically found in neglected meadows and pasture lands, along fence rows and roadsides, in vacant lots, wood edges, forest openings and industrial areas.

This plant, also known as wooly mullein, is an herbaceous biennial or short-lived perennial with a deep tap root. In the first year plants are low-growing rosettes of felt-like leaves. The whorl of leaves emerge from the root crown at the soil surface. The bluish gray-green, oblong to lanceolate leaves are 4-12″ long and 1-5″ wide, and are densely covered in hairs. Vernalization (exposure to cold temperatures) is required to induce flowering the following spring