Irish wildflowers BSBI map

Twiggy Mullein, Verbascum virgatum
Photographs: Crookhaven, Co. Cork

Twiggy Mullein
Verbascum virgatum
Family: Scrophulariaceae

Flowering: June-August. Biennial. Introduced.

Spikes of yellow flowers with purple-haired anthers, 2-5 flowers in each bract axil with 2 decurrent anthers and 3 fixed. The flower stalks are usually shorter than the calyx. Leaves are oblong-lanceolate and either unstalked or with short stalks. A glandular-hairy plant with the flower spike often branched at the base.

Infrequent in Ireland, mainly found on waste ground, grassland, roadsides and in quarries.

Similar: Moth Mullein, V. blattaria has one flower at each axil

Twiggy Mullein, Verbascum virgatum

Twiggy Mullein, Verbascum virgatum
Twiggy Mullein, Verbascum virgatum

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