This week I noticed for the very first time that there are tiny knobbed hairs on moth mullein stems, sepals and fruit capsules.

Moth mullein (Verbascum blattaria) is a biennial plant native to Eurasia and North Africa that’s now naturalized in North America. It blooms here from June to October.

The earliest flowers have already produced fruit by July. Each fruit is the swollen ovary of one of these flowers.

Eventually, the stem and seed capsules dry out …

… but they still have those tiny hairs. (Click here to see a closeup.)

(photos by Kate St. John. Except: dried seed pods from Wikimedia Commons; click on the caption to see the original.)