General: Robust biennial herb from a taproot; stems single, erect, 0.5-2 m tall; stem, leaves and inflorescence densely woolly with star-shaped or forking-branched, felted hairs.
Leaves: Basal leaves in a rosette, broadly lanceolate, 10-45 cm long, tapering to a stalked base, vaguely round-toothed to entire; stem leaves numerous, alternate, progressively reduced upward, becoming unstalked, with clasping leaf-bases decurrent along the stem.
Flowers: Inflorescence a dense, bracted, spike-like, terminal cluster, 10-50 cm long, of numerous very short-stalked flowers; corollas yellow, wheel-shaped, 1.5-3 cm across, 5-lobed, the lobes nearly equal, concave, the tube very short; calyces 5-12 mm long, hairy, deeply 5-lobed, the lobes lanceolate; stamens 5, the 3 upper filaments white- or yellow-long-hairy, the 2 lower filaments longer, smooth or nearly so.
1. Plants more or less densely stalked-glandular upward, essentially smooth below; leaves green.......................Verbascum blattaria
1. Plants woolly throughout with branched, non-glandular hairs; leaves greyish.
2. Inflorescences loose, often branching at the base; leaves unstalked, not decurrent on the stem or only slightly so; plants loosely woolly...........................Verbascum phlomoides
2. Inflorescences dense, simple; leaves stalked, at least below, decurrent on the stem, usually as far as the next leaf below; plants densely woolly............................Verbascum thapsus
Habitat / Range
Dry roadsides, gravel pits, fields and waste places; common in S BC north to 53degreeN, rare north to 55degreeN; introduced from Eurasia.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
