Question: Dr. Dirt, I have a weed growing in my yard that I do not know what it is
and how to control them. I have never seen anything like this before.
John
John
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Answer: John, thank you for dropping this off at the
Western Heritage Museum’s reception desk. The
weed you brought in for identification is called
MULLEIN or sometimes known as WOOLY MULLEIN.
Mulleins can be found in Lea County. They usually have hitch-hiked into our area via baled hay, seeds embedded in dirt or mud from excursions to the mountains west of Lea County. You will find ample stands of mullein growing in the Pecos River Valley agricultural farm fields and wildland interfaces. It can be found up in the Guadalupe and Sacramental Mountains.
The mullein plant grows rapidly from very tiny fine seeds and creates a stunning rosette of gray intensely covered gray hairs on the leaves and stems. Leaves are very soft to touch. They take two years to develop a flowering stalk that you brought to me today. They are much like thistles or sun flowers and shoot a stalk upwards from two feet to six feet in height. The terminal end is covered with light yellow honey-scented flowers; which are followed by small rounded capsules containing 100,000 to 180,000 of fine seeds on a parent plant. Wind, animal fur/hair, dirt removed from mullein growing sites will be infested with the fine seeds which will readily germinate in Lea County’s soil once sufficient moisture is present.
Control Measures: You can pull mulleins out easily if small; they do have a deep tap-root like a carrot. Broadleaf herbicides can be applied to the plant for a kill action. You must use a soap, adjuvant or spray oil with the herbicide mixture. The extremely hairy leaves will repel the weed spray and run-off the plant’s leaves and not killing the mullein. The spray additive to the herbicide will penetrate the hair and get the herbicide to the plant’s leaf surface. Spray the entire rosette on large plants and concentrate the spray mix to the center of the mullein’s growing point. They do not spread by underground roots or stems. This plant can be a noxious weed if left unchecked once it gets established.
Native Note: This plant can be utilized in a water wise/native landscape and it requires very little water to survive, hence the various locations in our mountain ranges. It does good as a backdrop specimen, the hairy leaves are attractive. Pollinators like the yellow flowers. English plant breeders have taken this particular plant and created flowering ornamental landscape mulleins with different color patterns.
Mulleins are used around the world as a medicinal plant to treat numerous health conditions and used in other forms and ways. It is totally a multi-use plant besides a common weed.
John, I hope this brief information helps you out on your new weed pests.
Dr. Dirt
Mulleins can be found in Lea County. They usually have hitch-hiked into our area via baled hay, seeds embedded in dirt or mud from excursions to the mountains west of Lea County. You will find ample stands of mullein growing in the Pecos River Valley agricultural farm fields and wildland interfaces. It can be found up in the Guadalupe and Sacramental Mountains.
The mullein plant grows rapidly from very tiny fine seeds and creates a stunning rosette of gray intensely covered gray hairs on the leaves and stems. Leaves are very soft to touch. They take two years to develop a flowering stalk that you brought to me today. They are much like thistles or sun flowers and shoot a stalk upwards from two feet to six feet in height. The terminal end is covered with light yellow honey-scented flowers; which are followed by small rounded capsules containing 100,000 to 180,000 of fine seeds on a parent plant. Wind, animal fur/hair, dirt removed from mullein growing sites will be infested with the fine seeds which will readily germinate in Lea County’s soil once sufficient moisture is present.
Control Measures: You can pull mulleins out easily if small; they do have a deep tap-root like a carrot. Broadleaf herbicides can be applied to the plant for a kill action. You must use a soap, adjuvant or spray oil with the herbicide mixture. The extremely hairy leaves will repel the weed spray and run-off the plant’s leaves and not killing the mullein. The spray additive to the herbicide will penetrate the hair and get the herbicide to the plant’s leaf surface. Spray the entire rosette on large plants and concentrate the spray mix to the center of the mullein’s growing point. They do not spread by underground roots or stems. This plant can be a noxious weed if left unchecked once it gets established.
Native Note: This plant can be utilized in a water wise/native landscape and it requires very little water to survive, hence the various locations in our mountain ranges. It does good as a backdrop specimen, the hairy leaves are attractive. Pollinators like the yellow flowers. English plant breeders have taken this particular plant and created flowering ornamental landscape mulleins with different color patterns.
Mulleins are used around the world as a medicinal plant to treat numerous health conditions and used in other forms and ways. It is totally a multi-use plant besides a common weed.
John, I hope this brief information helps you out on your new weed pests.
Dr. Dirt
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