Species
+

Verbascum nigrum L.

Black mullein, Dark Mullein

Climate known 60 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Verbascum nigrum, the black mullein or dark mullein, is a species of biennial or short-lived perennial herbaceous plant in the mullein genus Verbascum, native to dry open sites in temperate Europe. It grows to 0.5–1.5 m (1.6–4.9 ft).

Text from Wikipedia, “Verbascum nigrum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Verbascum

Verbascum is a genus of over 450 species of flowering plants, common name mullein, in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae. They are native to Europe, Africa and Asia, with the highest species diversity in the Mediterranean.

Text from Wikipedia, “Verbascum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Scrophulariaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Denmark, Finland, Great Britain +30
Wild records
587 in range· 164 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
882mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 83 mm (CHELSA)
Light
4–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 882 mm a year, wettest July at 83 mm, driest April at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Thapsus niger (L.) Raf., 1838; Verbascum urticaefolium Lam.; Verbascum virens Rchb.; Verbascum virens Rchb. ex Nyman.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (638 mm of 882 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 15.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to July.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 882 mm a year, wettest July at 83 mm, driest April at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

882 mm a year at the habitat, 638 mm of it June to January. Wettest month July at 83 mm, driest April at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 719 mm to 1273 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 4 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 2, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -8.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -8.2 °C, the absolute minimum -16.5 °C, about 52 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 0.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells -7.2 °C to 1.4 °C), warmest day 21.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 5 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from 0 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 882 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 544 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -16.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost27.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-16.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 4–34RH 59–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 544 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C5 / -1–66 / 0–69 / 4–1013 / 9–1417 / 14–1820 / 17–2122 / 20–2322 / 19–2318 / 15–1914 / 9–159 / 4–105 / 0–6
Night °C0 / -7–10 / -7–12 / -4–34 / 1–59 / 6–911 / 10–1214 / 13–1514 / 12–1511 / 9–128 / 4–94 / -1–51 / -6–2
Rain mm77 / 49–8860 / 39–7370 / 46–9347 / 41–8567 / 56–11875 / 67–12683 / 73–12879 / 69–12678 / 64–11582 / 64–11282 / 60–10582 / 55–100
DLI5 / 3–810 / 7–1417 / 15–2127 / 25–3033 / 32–3534 / 33–3733 / 32–3627 / 26–3019 / 17–2211 / 8–156 / 3–94 / 2–7
RH %68 / 64–6965 / 62–6763 / 60–6460 / 59–6159 / 57–6160 / 58–6260 / 59–6361 / 60–6363 / 62–6465 / 64–6768 / 65–7069 / 65–70

Each figure is the median across the 544 grid cells holding the 587 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 754:3718 (52.275, 5.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -16.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 544 distinct grid cells holding the 587 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 754:3718 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 52.50_5.625, lapse-corrected +21 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 25 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeDenmark, Finland, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, France, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Central European Russia, East European Russia, North European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Altay, Krasnoyarsk, West Siberia· introduced: Irkutsk, Yakutskiya, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Bolivia
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker50.885, 5.679 · in the densest population, 289 records (49% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 587 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 164 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 909 km away. 5 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 587 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Verbascum nigrumVerbascum nigrumVerbascum nigrumVerbascum nigrumVerbascum nigrumVerbascum nigrumVerbascum nigrumVerbascum nigrum

Photographs: (c) Bellsprout, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) aga_l_, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Kostas Zontanos, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Verbascum nigrum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Metabolic alterations of Verbascum nigrum L. plants and SAArT transformed roots as revealed by NMR-based metabolomics
Milen I. Georgiev, Anna Radziszewska, Madeleine Neumann, Andrey S. Marchev (2015) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)
Saponins from Verbascum nigrum
Barbara Klimek, Catherine Lavaud, Georges Massiot (1992) · Phytochemistry
Verbascum nigrum L. (mullein) extract as a natural emulsifier
Maciej Jarzębski, Wojciech Smułek, Mikołaj Kościński, Tomasz Białopiotrowicz (2018) · Food Hydrocolloids
Iridoide aus Verbascum nigrum L. 182. Mitteilung über organische Naturstoffe
Karlheinz Seifert, Emanuel Schöpp, Manfred Hesse, S. Johne (1982) · Helvetica Chimica Acta
Estudio de la vegetación y flora vascular de la cuenca del río Asón
Mercedes Herrera (2012) · Guineana - Revista de Botánica
Estudio de la vegetación y flora vascular de la cuenca del río Asón (Cantabria)
Mercedes Herrera (1989) · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja)
Iridoids from Verbascum nigrum
Thorsten Vesper, Karlheinz Seifert (1994) · Liebigs Annalen der Chemie
Surfactant addition in diesel oil degradation – how can it help the microbes?
Agata Zdarta, Wojciech Smułek, Amanda Pacholak, Beata Dudzińska-Bajorek (2020) · Journal of Environmental Health Science and Engineering
Diuretic activity and toxicity of someVerbascum nigrumextracts and fractions
Svetlana A. Kalinina, Ольга Викторовна Елькина, Dmitrii V. Kalinin, B. Ya. Syropyatov (2013) · Pharmaceutical Biology
Verbascum nigrum: Cytotoxicity Evaluation in A431 Epidermoid Carcinoma Cells and Untargeted LC‐HR‐MS/MS Metabolite Profiling
Iolanda Alca Iliescu, Samuel Peter, Ina Albert, Krystyna Skalicka‐Woźniak (2020) · Chemistry & Biodiversity

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Verbascum 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.