Common name: woolly mullein, great mullein, white mullein. Other older names include our lady’s flannel, velvet dock, blanket herb, velvet plant.
Botanical name: Verbascum thapsus
Botanical family: Scrophulariaceae
Cultivation
Woolly mullein is a biennial plant. The first year, it grows in a rosette shape and the second year, it grows a tall stem with small yellow flowers, and then die off.
Its leaves are very fluffy and soft (not to be confused with lamb’s ears).
How does it do here in Central Otago? It grows wild here. It loves to grow in gravely places, like dry river beds, or on the side of gravel roads.
It’s very hardy, tolerates frost and draught.
Traditional medicinal uses
Its main affinities are with the respiratory system (leaves). The leaves of woolly mullein are great for lungs health and can help with coughs – they are expectorant and demulcent (thanks to the mucilage and saponins). The leaves can help with asthma and congesting lungs.
They are also high in vitamins and minerals, including iron and magnesium.
Some American herbalists recommend the leaves for fascia.
The flowers are traditionally used for earaches, when infused in oil.
How to use it?
Part used: leaves and flowers.
The leaves can be used fresh or dried as a herbal tea, or tinctured in alcohol.
To make a herbal tea and for a better extract, it is best to do a long infusion, i.e. 4 hours or more. Make sure you strain all the plant material as the fluff from the leaves can be irritant.
The flowers are generally used to make an oil for earaches.
Mythology/Folklore
In Roman time, once stripped from their leaves, the stems were used to make torches in religious ceremonies.
The thick and fluffy leaves were put in shoes to keep feet warm.
Traditionally, woolly mullein was smoked to help with respiratory ailments.
References
Materia Medica of Western Herbs by Carole Fisher
A Modern Herbal by Mrs M. Grieve
Magic and Medicine of Plants
