Great Mullein

Common mullein is a notable plant with its yellow flowers and single long sturdy stem reaching heights up to two meters. The plant has many uses and many nicknames. For example, Hig candlewick and Cowboy toilet paper! It was used long ago as a torch by dipping it in tar or wax. And presumably cowboys used it as toilet paper! Not just people find it a handy plant. Some birds, including the wheatear, whinchat and stonechat, use common mullein as a lookout post. In the winter, linnets and tits eat its fruit capsules filled with nutritious seeds. Common mullein flowers open before dawn and close in the afternoon. The seeds can wait in the ground up to decades before germinating.