#verbascum thapsus

[kitpikz]

Mullien, Miners Candle

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Thursday 3 October 2024

In the first year the biennial Verbascum thapsus (great mullein, Aaron's rod, beggar's blanket, cow's lungwort, duffle, feltwort, flannel leaf, fluffweed, rag paper, torch lily, velvet dock) produces a rosette of large wooly grey-green leaves. In the second year a tall, upright, woolly stem is produced bearing yellow, saucer-shaped flowers popular with pollinators.

Jill Raggett

[los-plantalones]

common mullein.

[faguscarolinensis]

Verbascum thapsus / Great Mullein on the Flatirons Vista Trail in Boulder, CO

[groupwest]

getting to know Mullein. fuzzy little donkey’s ears. Candlewick plant; Jupiter’s Staff. Feltwort. I hurt my nose yesterday, tore up my nasal mucosa or something, it’s really annoying. just happened to have been gifted a little mullein recently, just to try her out. so i did. and feel so much better instantly, even still smoking it with tobacco, felt relief after first couple of drags. i should drink it as a tea but i’m a little scared of all those hairs, you should strain white mullein very well before drinking it, apparently.

i forget what the point of this post was…

just to share that she’s a lovely plant to work with, i guess. doesn’t get enough recognition.

[lionfloss]

Verbascum thapsus (Mullein)

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

What's poppin' in late February: Part 6 of ~7

Not blooming, but surely popping up into life!

Buckeyes - Aesculus sylvatica. Blooming soon! Mullein - Verbascum thapsus Mayapples - Podophyllum peltatum

[vespertinals]

It was bone-chillingly cold here on the 31st. The wind roared and the trees croaked as the procession of The Wild Hunt raged on; as Frau Holle, Diana, Herodias, Aradia, or Lilith acting as Dominae Nocturnae led her retinue of the Good Folk through the night sky to the sabbat. The coyotes barked and yipped, their song keeping our livestock dog Sylva howling in defense all night.

We stayed in to bake black bread and make hag’s tapers. After harvesting dried mullein stalks — a plant with a long list of medicinal values and lore in witchery — they’re brushed (very tediously) with beeswax, and they burn like torches.

A lot of the lore behind mullein relates to its representation of the crossroads and its use in rites of necromancy. “It encourages the manifestation of spirits and communication with those who dwell on the other side.” Certain old grimoires also use mullein as a substitution for graveyard dirt in their formulae.

Burn hag’s tapers to illuminate the Mighty Dead. Last night, they led our party guests like Hekate’s torch into the woods to the stone spiral that surrounds a beech tree (a tree with lore in ancestral work and old wisdom). Candles were sat along the spiral, songs were sung, and stories were shared of those we lost this year and in years past.

Stories and memories to keep us warm in the darker months to come.