Verbascum blattaria |
Verbascum |
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molène blattaire, moth mullein |
molène, mullein |
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Habit | Annuals or biennials. | Herbs, annual, biennial, or perennial; stolons absent. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | 60–150 cm, glabrous or glabrate. |
erect, glabrous, glabrate, puberulent, hirsute, tomentose, or floccose, sometimes glabrescent, stipitate-glandular or eglandular. |
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Leaves | surfaces glabrous or glabrate; basal and proximal cauline with petiole 1–2 mm; blade obovate to oblanceolate, oblong, or oblong-lanceolate, 4–12(–20) × 1.5–5 cm, base subrounded to broadly cuneate; cauline subclasping, gradually smaller distally, base not decurrent, margins coarsely and regularly crenate-dentate to dentate or pinnately dentate-lobed, apex of distal cauline and floral bracts acute. |
basal and cauline, alternate; stipules absent; petiole present or absent; blade not fleshy, leathery or not, margins entire, serrate, crenate, dentate, sinuate, or lobed. |
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Inflorescences | unbranched, rarely branched from proximal nodes, narrowly cylindric, flowers remote, solitary in axils at least distally; rachis stipitate-glandular, without other vestiture; bracts ovate to lanceolate-ovate, 7–10(–15) mm, base decurrent, apex acute to short-acuminate, stipitate-glandular. |
terminal, spikes, racemes, or panicles, flowers solitary or clustered in fascicles; bracts present. |
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Pedicels | free or adnate to rachis at base, 5–11(–15) mm; bracteoles 0. |
present; bracteoles present or absent. |
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Flowers | calyx 5–7 mm, stipitate-glandular, lobes linear-lanceolate to narrowly oblong; corolla purple in bud, becoming yellow, yellow-orange, yellow with purple center, white, cream with red-tinged tips, or pink, 25–35 mm diam., pellucid glands absent or relatively few; proximal filaments hairy, hairs purple, distal pair villous, hairs white and purple or violet; stigma spatulate, base decurrent. |
bisexual; sepals 5, calyx radially or bilaterally symmetric, campanulate, lobes linear-oblong to elliptic or triangular; petals 5, corolla yellow to orange, white, purple, cream, or pink, sometimes with purple center or red-tinged tips, radially or bilaterally symmetric, rotate with petals spreading to deflexed or shallowly cupulate, abaxial lobes 3, adaxial 2; stamens [4]5, adnate to base of corolla, equal to subequal or anterior pair longer, filaments densely villous, sometimes anterior pair glabrous, staminode 0[1]; ovary 2-locular, placentation axile; stigma capitate or spatulate. |
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Fruits | capsules, ovoid to ellipsoid-ovoid, broadly ellipsoid, ovoid-globular, or subglobular, dehiscence septicidal. |
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Capsules | subglobular, 5–8 mm, sparsely stipitate-glandular apically. |
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Seeds | 50–300, tan or brown to orangish, conic to cylindric, usually pitted and rugose, appearing transversely and longitudinally ribbed, wings absent. |
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x | = 6. |
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2n | = 18, 30, 32. |
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Verbascum blattaria |
Verbascum |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Jul(–Oct). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Stream banks, lake edges, ditches, dry hills, railroad rights-of-way, orchards, prairies, open oak woods, rocky meadows, roadsides, fields, disturbed sites. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–1300 m. (0–4300 ft.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; BC; NB; ON; QC; Europe; Asia [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Pacific Islands (Hawaii, New Zealand), Australia]
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Europe; Asia; ne Africa [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Mexico, South America, elsewhere in Africa (Tunisia), Pacific Islands, Australia] |
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Discussion | Verbascum ×pterocaulon Franchet is a hybrid between V. blattaria and V. thapsus. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Species 300–360 (12 in the flora). Chromosome counts of 2n = 18, 26, 30, 32, 34, 36, 40, 44, 45, 48, 50, 64, and 66 have been reported for species of Verbascum. A base number is not clear, but x = 6 appears to be a reasonable fit (2n = 18, 30, 36, 48, and 66 would thus be polyploid levels). In any case, the range of numbers reflects both polyploidy and dysploidy. Stamen number, placenta structure (entire and sessile versus two-fid and stalked), capsule shape, and number of flowers per node/bract have been used as diagnostic characters to distinguish Celsia Linnaeus and Staurophragma Fischer & C. A. Meyer as segregates from Verbascum (S. Murbeck 1925; A. Huber-Morath 1973; F. A. Karaveliogullari and Z. Aytac 2008). Huber-Morath (1978) included Celsia and Staurophragma within Verbascum. All species treated here are Verbascum in the strict sense. Taxonomic treatments of Verbascum have been inconsistent in use of rank for infraspecific taxa; both varieties and subspecies appear in this treatment as well. Since all of our taxa are introduced to North America, further study of the species in their native environs is warranted before any uniformity can be established. In any case, use of one rank or the other does not imply a biological or evolutionary difference. Hybrids are commonly produced among many combinations of parents. Verbascum thapsus, which is the most common and widespread of the species in the flora area, is known to have formed four hybrids in North America; see species discussions for nothospecies and purported parental species. Verbascum ×ramigerum Link ex Schrader [V. densiflorum × V. lychnitis] has been reported in Europe; it and other combinations may be expected in the flora area. Plants of Verbascum collected as weeds in a lawn in Duluth, Minnesota, in 2001 and 2002 (Schimpf DJS318, DJS327, MIN), have been identified as V. chaixii Villars (http://plants.usda.gov); they perhaps are hybrids with V. nigrum as one of the parents (Dirk Albach, pers. comm.). The leaves are glabrate, the basal ones ovate-elliptic, subentire to shallowly crenate, and subpetiolate, and the cauline ones mostly non-clasping; the inflorescences are stipitate-glandular, unbranched, with flowers in loosely overlapping clusters of three to six; corollas are white to yellowish with pellucid glands; and staminal filaments all are villous with violet hairs. Without an unequivocal identification and evidence that they have become naturalized, they are not formally treated here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 17, p. 346. | FNA vol. 17, p. 343. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Scrophulariaceae > Verbascum | Scrophulariaceae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 178. (1753) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 177. (1753): Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 83. (1754) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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