Verbascum thapsus, the great mullein or common mullein, is a species of mullein native to Europe, northern Africa, and Asia, and introduced in the Americas and Australia.

The silvery green leaves and bright yellow flowers of mullein have been utilized for thousands of years in herbal traditions.

Dioscorides, a Greek physician pharmacologist and botanist, practising in the 1st century in Rome, who authored the herbal De Materia Medica, was one of the first to recommend mulleins use around 2,000 years ago.
It was also used as a hair wash in ancient Roman times; the leaf ash to darken hair and the yellow flowers for lightening it.

This gentle herb has been used extensively in European and North American folk medicine and thus has a plethora of folk tales associated with it going from warding off evil but also was thought to instil courage and health, provide protection, and attract love.