Mullein Flower Spike

The big, tall plant that looks like a flagpole, you see it on the sunniest, driest places by the road.

It's a strange one. First year, it makes these leaves that are very big and soft, like a gray flannel cloth—you know, fuzzy like a cat's ear. Very velvety! Then the second year, this crazy tall stem goes up, very straight, with all these little yellow flowers packed tightly on it. It looks like a bright, heavy club standing in the field.

But this plant is not just for looking. It's a very big thing in our old folk medicine. You dry the flowers and leaves to make a tea, and it is excellent for the lungs and when you have a cough. It is soothing, they say.

My grandmother, she would keep the dried stalks too. She told me long ago, people would dip the fuzzy stems in fat and use them like torches, like big candles. It's a very simple, very strong plant. You cannot miss it when you drive past.