In message , Nick Maclaren
writes

In article ,
K writes:
| Jim Ford writes
| I'm familiar with the usual wild mulleins, with the single spike of
| flowers, but never seen one like this before. It's about 2.5 meters tall
| and growing 'wild' on a bank where I work.
|
| http://homepage.ntlworld.com/james.ford60/mullein.jpg
|
| Identification anyone, please?
|
| You could try Hoary mullein, V pulverulentum. It's branched and quite
| big. According to Fitter, only in E Anglia, though I was at a nature
| reserve in Derbys at yesterday and I'm sure the warden claimed that the
| large branched mulleins on the steep sides of the valley were hoary
| mullein.

The pictures certainly match. But it is the sort of plant that is
likely to be an escape from wild garden schemes. Clapham, Tutin
and Warburg says that it is a rare casual, and that V. speciosum is
introduced and similar and sometimes naturalises itself.

http://www.plantpress.com/wildlife/o...arymullein.php
http://www.hlasek.com/verbascum_speciosum_685.html


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

I haven't looked at any pictures, but Stace also mentions V. pyramidatum
(casual in S. England), V. chaixii (casual in S. Britain) and V.
speciosum (casual in Kent and East Anglia) and V. lychnitis as having
well branched inflorescences. V. lychnitis has yellow flowers around
Minehead, and casually elsewhere.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley