home

Verbascum arcturus

Phylum: Magnoliophyta - Class: Equisetopsida - Order: Lamiales - Family: Scrophulariaceae

Verbascum arcturus

This amazingly durable but also very beautiful member of the Scrophuliaraceae (Figwort) family grows in the most inhospitable of places. More than 40 Verbascum species grow in Greece, but this is our favourite.

Verbascum arcturus has extremely hairy leaves and a long, tough stem with a lax raceme of golden yellow flowers. Individual flowers are typically 2.5cm across, and racemes of flowers can be up to 50cm in length.

Verbascum arcuturus flowers

Distribution

Verbascum arcturus is one of two Verbascum species that are endemic to Crete. (The other endemic Cretan mullein is Verbascum spinosum.)

Habitat

Coping well with prolonged drought, Verbascum arcturus is mainly confined to limestone cliffs on the western side iof Crete, and often the plants grow in inaccessible places; it can grow out of vertical cliff faces.

Verbascum arcturus on a rocky ledge

Blooming times

Verbascum arcturus can be seen in bloom from February to the beginning of June. The plants shown on this page were photographed in Crete at the beginning of April.

Etymology

Verbascum, the genus name, is a corruption of the Latin adjective barbascum, which means 'with a beard' - a reference to the hairy leaves.

The specific epithet arcturus comes from two Greek words, arktos meaning a bear, and ura meaning a tail - hence arcturus translates to bear's tail.


Sue Parker's latest ebook is a revised and enlarged second edition of the acclaimed Wildflowers in the Algarve - an introductory guide. Full details here...

Buy it for just £3.95 on Amazon...

Sue Parker's 5-star acclaimed field guide to the Wild Orchids of the Algarve is now available as an ebook. Full details here...

Buy it for just £5.95 on Amazon...


Please Help Us: If you have found this information interesting and useful, please consider helping to keep First Nature online by making a small donation towards the web hosting and internet costs.

Any donations over and above the essential running costs will help support the conservation work of Plantlife, the Rivers Trust and charitable botanic gardens - as do author royalties and publisher proceeds from books by Pat and Sue.

© 1995 - 2024 First Nature: a not-for-profit volunteer-run resource

Please help to keep this free resource online...

Terms of use - Privacy policy - Disable cookies - Links policy