Lambs Ear/Common Mullein

On the first of September, my daughter, her baby, my husband, and I went for a walk out back, down our lane.  We noticed these plants along the bottom part of the lane and my husband thought they were “lambs ear”.  I picked one of the leaves and poured water on it to see what would happen.  The water ran off the leaf and never did soak in.  I took a picture of one in bloom and some stalks of other plants that had matured and dried.

Today I got on the internet to look up this plant and was totally amazed at what this plant is/does.  It looks like lambs ear but is actually a common mullein.  It is said to have been called “cowboy toilet paper”…(I’m guessing because of it’s long, soft, strong leaves) – “witches candle”, because a torch can be made by dipping the dried flower stocks in tallow (a hard fatty substance made from rendered animal fat, used in making candles and soap), and lighting them on fire.  According to some of the sites, this plant has many other names, too.  It claims to also have many medicinal uses: expectorant, anti-inflammatory, relieves coughing, loosens mucus, relieves ear aches, helps eliminate toxins, promotes wound healing and others, that were listed on the internet.  You can find out oodles of information on this plant just by doing a Google search.  I typed in Mullein Plant and a long, long list of sites came up.  Here, here, and here are just three of the sites I looked at.  A very interesting plant, indeed.