Daily Signet

The mullein is an object lesson of transformation as it first takes shape in low growing rosettes of feltlike leaves forming the most maternal of shapes. Bowled at the bottom, the wooly leaves fan out into a big melon-shaped configuration. The mullein will take root in the rockiest of soils and then spread out as if it was the crowning bow on a big package. Because of its bluish gray-green, beefy leaves, mullein are somewhat lost on the landscape overshadowed by seemingly more aggressive plants. Yet, something triggers the mullein and there is a turning point in its lifecycle when it draws up into itself all its beefy leaves and then weaves an impressive spike taken up by a yellow torch of five-petaled flowers extending at least the last foot of the stalk. What once was fanned out, somewhat hidden low to the ground becomes a streamlined stalk reaching as high as five to six feet with a seed-laden array of yellow blooms. It is estimated that a single plant can produce 100,000 to 180,000 seeds which may remain viable for more than 100 years.  Suddenly, the plant you might have dubbed a mother plant in its early stages has become the most father of them all.

Often the mullein is the first plant to take root in areas devastated by forest fires or where the soil has been disturbed in some way removing trees and foliage that would shade an area. When the ground receives light, mullein seeds that have been dormant in the soil for years will begin to grow. Later when grasses begin to take over, mulleins die out leaving only their dead flower stalks. The mullein can be said to be an heroic plant of sorts, ready to transform itself into a budding stalk of potential; made tall in stature because of a striving for beauty and life that will outlive itself.                                                               

Benjamin H Martin

On This Day…

Buddhist Ulambana-Obon: In remembrance of the ancestors Shinto Obon