Wavy-leaved mullein
Verbascum sinuatum
Family · Scrophulariaceae · Irritating
The yellow candelabra standing on dry verges in the middle of August, when everything else has dried out. At the base sits a huge rosette of wavy leaves, soft as felt.
Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture · Town and roadside · Scrubland
Also known asMediterranean mullein
How to tell it
A basal rosette of large, wavy, velvety leaves. A tall branched stem with five-petalled yellow flowers scattered along the arms. It stands, dry, all winter.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
The dried leaves served as lamp wicks and the flowers entered folk-medicine infusions. The seeds are toxic to fish and were used to stun them, a practice now banned.
With documented traditional uses. Not a therapeutic indication and not a dose.