Selected Plants of Navajo Rangelands
Mullein
Bįįhyiljáa’í
Mullein is a tall, unmistakeable plant. The leaves are mostly basal, and can reach very large size. They are woolly. The inflorescence is a long crowded spike of yellow flowers. The stamen filaments are very hairy, and the top of the style is flattened. Mullein is a lower- to middle-elevation plant that grows on dry soil and on roadsides. The branching of the multicellular leaf cilia is quite interesting. The flowers mature into two-chambered, stellate-pubescent capsules partially enclosed by leafy bracts. The capsules initially are green, and then turn brown. After the capsules turn brown, they split open from the pointed apex toward the base revealing hundreds of minute, rugose brown seeds.
*Based on description at Western New Mexico University's Vascular Plants of the Gila Wilderness.
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