Joyce H. Newman is the editor of Consumer Reports’ GreenerChoices.org, and has been a docent with The New York Botanical Garden for the past six years.

Yes, it’s a weed, it’s a biennial, and it’s called mullein (Verbascum bombyciferum). So many visitors asked me about this plant during a recent Conservatory tour of Monet’s Garden that, as soon as I got home, I went straight to the computer to look up more information.

When it comes to weeds, as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” And it seems Monet’s keen eye was quick to see those virtues in mullein, especially when its wooly, whitish leaves were placed near the foliage of poppies.

For our exhibition, Monet’s spring flower garden features lots of poppies in many colors alongside–you guessed it–mullein. Rising over four feet high, the showy yellow flowers really stand out, prompting visitors to ask, “What’s that?”
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Daniel Atha is an Associate Editor of NYBG’s systemic botany journal, Brittonia, and a researcher with specialties in floristics, taxonomy, and economic botany. He has also taught classes in anatomy and systemics at the Garden’s School of Professional Horticulture and is currently working on a project to develop identifying DNA barcodes for plants of the Northeastern United States.

Chickweed (left) and false chickweed (right)

Certain plants have a poor reputation, one that isn’t always deserved. And in the case of this particular “weed,” the old adage stands that if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em:

Stellaria media (L.) Vill. (chickweed)

This is a direct quote from Wikipedia: “… this plant is common in gardens, fields, and disturbed grounds. Control is difficult due to the heavy seed sets. Common Chickweed is very competitive with small grains, and can produce up to 80% yield losses among barley. [It] is edible and nutritious, and is used as a leaf vegetable, often raw in salads. It is one of the ingredients of the symbolic dish consumed in the Japanese spring-time festival, Nanakusa-no-sekku.”
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