Israel wildflowers: Verbascum berytheum

Verbascum berytheum, Verbascum bulbosum, Beiruth Mullein,
Hebrew: בוצין בירותי, Arabic: البوصير البيروتي

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Scientific name:   Verbascum berytheum Boiss.
Scientific name:   Verbascum bulbosum Ehrenb. ex Boiss.
Common name:   Beiruth Mullein
Hebrew name:   בוצין בירותי
Arabic name:   البوصير البيروتي
Family:   Scrophulariaceae, לועניתיים


Life form:   Hemicryptophyte
Stems:   Up to 100cm; covered with simple hairs
Leaves:   Rosette, simple, alternate
Inflorescence:   Terminal racemes
Flowers:   Yellow, short tube, 5-lobed, stamens 4 or 5, filaments villous
Fruits / pods:   Capsule septicidal, numerous seeds
Flowering Period:   April, May
Habitat:   Loam soil in the coastal plain
Distribution:   The Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands
Chorotype:   Mediterranean
Summer shedding:   Perennating


Derivation of the botanical name:

Verbascum, mullein; corrupted form of barbascum, from the Latin barba (a beard), in allusion to the shaggy foliage; the ancient Latin name for this plant.

berytheum, Beirut, Lebanon.
Mullein from Anglo-French moleine (French moulaine), perhaps literally “the soft-leaved plant,” from French mol “soft,” from Latin mollis “soft.”
The Hebrew name: בוצין, busin, Aramaic בוצינא, būṣīnā, a wick, a lamp, because of the shape of the flower.

  • The standard author abbreviation Boiss. is used to indicate Pierre Edmond Boissier (1810 – 1885), a Swiss botanist, explorer and mathematician.
  • The standard author abbreviation Ehrenb. is used to indicate Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795 – 1876), a German naturalist, zoologist, comparative anatomist, geologist, and microscopist.

Verbascum berytheum is an endangered species endemic to loam soil in the coastal plain in Israel and Lebanon.