(upbeat music) (gentle acoustic music) - I am standing next to a mullein plant.

Some people say mullein, I say mullein.

And we will post the scientific link for you as well.

This is in its second year.

It's a non-native plant.

They figure it was introduced sometime mid to late 1700s and brought over as like a medicinal herb.

The first year of its life, it sits very low to the ground and grows kind of as a rosette.

Then as you can see, the spikes get really tall.

I'm 5'2.5".

That half is very important to me.

They grow between 5 and 10 feet tall.

So the mullein plant is pretty easy to identify.

The leaves are kind of wooly or fuzzy.

Also, you kind of can't miss the spike and then the yellow flowers, which something I think is kind of pretty about that.

Each flower will bloom before dawn, and by afternoon, it's already closed up.

So that's kind of cool, like an early morning bloomer.

This plant is used medicinally.

Anything to do with your chest or breathing easier and deeper.

Things like asthma, bronchitis, things like that that impact our chest and make it feel kind of heavy.

Can be used fresh or you can dry it.

Can be used as tea, just figure a cup of boiling water and then your desired amount of plant material.

Also you can just boil it and then breathe in the steam.

Interestingly, when we're thinking chest issues and lungs and respiratory, we might not think of smoking as something that would be beneficial for that, but this plant has been used like a component of a smoke mix.

You can smoke the leaves of the plant, also the flowers in their dried form, and that will work similar to how a tea would work, only it's just how you prefer to take that plant in.

So the mullein plant.