velvet plant

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.

Example Sentences

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."

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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?

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