Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Verbascum blattaria

Common name

Moth Mullein

Family

Scrophulariaceae

Where found

Disturbed ground, roadsides, and pastures. Widespread.

Notes

Introduced erect, mostly unbranched biennial herb to 1.2 m high. Stems hairless in the lower parts of the plant, and with stalked or stalkless glands higher up. Leaves form a rosette in the first year; and a leafy stem with leaves alternating up the stem, crowned by the infloresecence, in the second year. Leaves in the lower parts 8–25 cm long, 20–40 mm wide, margins scalloped and wavy to deeply dissected, surfaces hairless. Stem leaves smaller, stem-clasping, grading upwards into leaf-like bracts 0.7–0.8 cm long. Flowers pale pink, white or yellow, with purple centres, 25–30 mm in diameter, with 5 petals fused at the base. Flowers solitary in the bract axilsRacemes unbranched or with few branches, 30–60 cm long.

PlantNET description:  https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Verbascum~blattaria  (accessed 25 March 2021)