velvet plant

American  

noun

1. a composite plant, Gynura aurantiaca, native to the Old World tropics, having leaves and stems covered with dense, velvety, purple hairs and often cultivated as a houseplant.

2. the common mullein, Verbascum thapsus.

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Example Sentences

It is commonly believed that the mullein is indigenous to this country, for have we not heard that it is cultivated in European gardens, and christened the American velvet plant?

From The Writings of John Burroughs — Volume 05: Pepacton by Burroughs, John

It is not the first time that an American weed has been exhibited in England as a horticultural beauty; our common way-side mullein, for example, is cherished across the Atlantic as the "American velvet plant."

From Americanisms and Briticisms with other essays on other isms by Matthews, Brander