Mullein rosettes - Aravaipa Canyon Creek

This is common mullein (Verbascum thapsus). I have heard it called Cowboy Toilet Paper but I cannot attest to its efficacy.

www.ediblewildfood.com/mullein.aspx
"Mullein is a soft (almost velvet-like) biennial that can grow very tall. This dicotyledonous plant produces a rosette of leaves in its first year of growth. The second year plant normally produces a single unbranched stem. The tall pole-like stem ends at a dense spike of yellow flowers. It is a common wild edible plant that spreads by prolifically producing seeds, but rarely becomes aggressively invasive, since its seed requires open ground to germinate. The common name, mullein, comes from the German language, meaning king’s candle because of its scepter-like, candle-straight growth. Depending on the summer weather conditions, this wild edible may not produce a lot of flowers. All parts of this plant are covered with star-shaped trichomes. This covering is particularly thick on the leaves, giving them a silvery appearance. As its other name implies, mullein leaves were once used as toilet paper.

Although the leaves and flowers are edible, enjoying a cup of tea made from these parts is generally preferable. Leaves and flowers can be used in a salad."

"We have earned enough memories, stored enough mental emotional images in our heads, from one brief day in Aravaipa Canyon, to enrich the urban days to come. As Henry David Thoreau found a universe in the woods around Concord, any individual whose senses are alive can make a world of any natural place, however limited it might seem, on this subtle planet of ours." Edward Abbey, from Down the River (with Henry)

www.nytimes.com/1982/01/03/travel/in-the-land-of-laughing...
'The world is big, it is comprehensible,'' says R. Buckminster Fuller. But it seems to me that the world is not nearly big enough and any portion of its surface, left unpaved and alive, is infinitely rich in details and relationships, in wonder, beauty, mystery, comprehensible only in part. The very existence of existence is itself suggestive of the unknown - not a problem but a mystery. We will never get to the end of it, never plumb the bottom of it, never know the whole of even so small and trivial and useless and precious a place as Aravaipa. Therein lies our redemption." Edward Abbey

Aravaipa Canyon 2023
DSC05477.jpg

Taken in: United States / Arizona / Hortons Place (show map)

Taken on: November 1, 2023

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Sets appears in: • Arizona Hikes other than Grand Canyon • Aravaipa more » • Flora « less

Groups appears in: • Arizona • Arizona Discovery more » • Arizona Wonders (up to 3 in a row) • Wildflowers • Wild flowers • Nature Photography • Arizona Nature • Arizona Flora • Arizona Passages « less

Camera: Sony ILCE-7M4, f/4.0, 1/160 sec, 28mm, ISO 1000 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Sony ILCE-7M4
Lens:	FE 24-240mm F3.5-6.3 OSS
Aperture:	f/4.0
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	28mm
ISO:	1000
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Saturation:	Low
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 13.3.1 (Windows)
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