Duration: Biennial

Nativity: Non-Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Biennial with stems to 1 m or more, erect, simple or wand-like and branched, herbage pilose with both branched and glandular hairs.

Leaves: Basal rosette in first year, cauline leaves 2-24 cm long, lanceolate, elliptic to ovate or lanceolate, crenate, clasping at base.

Flowers: Racemes lax, interrupted, pedicels shorter than capsules 2-5 mm long, calyx 5-8 mm long, lobes lanceolate, glandular; corolla yellow or white, 30-40 mm wide, lower pair of stamens with violet hairs, upper ones with white to violet hairs.

Fruits: Capsule 6-9 mm long, globose, glandular.

Ecology: Found on disturbed ground from 4,500-7,000 ft (1372-2134 m); flowers June-September.

Notes: Distinguished from the native Verbascum thapsus by its being loosely pilose, with stems clasping at base, where in V. thapsus the leaves are decurrent at base. Introduced from Europe.

Ethnobotany: Unknown, but other species in the genus have uses.

Etymology: Verbascum is a corrupted form of Barbascum, the ancient Latin name for this plant, while virgatum means wand-like.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010

Glandular-hairy throughout, and with the short (commonly 3-5 mm) pedicels usually several at the lower nodes of the infl, has been found several times in our range.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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