May 11 2010
Mullein harvest
Last month while chasing pigs through the woods (a story that I will write about soon) I stumbled into a large area filled with Common Mullein – Verbascum thapsus. Mullein likes to grow in recently disturbed areas, and this place was really disturbed – trees uprooted and bulldozed away into giant piles.
Mullein is a fascinating plant. It easily colonizes disturbed areas, but its growth requirements prevent it from becoming invasive. Too much shade and it is all over for this plant. Rapid succession from other plants will crowd it out.
This early succession plant can actually make itself less viable by its own presence. A study in the Journal of Ecology conducted in our area concludes that as the years progress, the plant will become smaller and smaller and seed production will drop off significantly each year. According to the study, the first generation produced five times as much seed as the third generation.
Our friend Nick came over, so he and Kristin decided that we should go out to the spot and harvest some of the mullein leaves. These first generation plants had some giant leaves, meaning less time harvesting and more time picking the ticks off our legs.
Mullein has many medicinal properties – it can be made into a tea or smoked to battle a cough. Sounds counterproductive, right?
The plant is also referred to as Nature’s Toilet Paper, but the irritating hairs that cover the plant make me think that you would need to be in some dire need to use it for that purpose more than once in a while.
The dried stalk contains many oils that supposedly make it a good torch. I am going to try it out this Fall after the stalks are up.
