Mullein

Last fall, I noticed a couple of odd-looking plants that were a pretty shade of green against the dead grass.  Here's a picture of one of them.

I decided to leave them be and see what they grew into in the spring.  They pretty much stayed the same all winter, but as spring arrived, they began to change.  The following picture was taken in May.  Notice the "rosette" of leaves in the middle.

This rosette gradually grew into a flower stalk, like this.

The other plant was inside our dog pen.  Here it is.

The flowers were yellow and grew out of this interesting cone-like structure.

If you looked closely at the flowers, you could see lots of ants inside them.  

I found the entire plant to be quite striking!  As summer arrived, the flower stalk grew taller.

And taller!

This plant is a wild herb called "Mullein".  It is apparently invasive in some areas, so I plan to cut it down before it produces seed.  However, the website http://www.eattheweeds.com/ has lots of information on uses for this plant.  If you search the site, you'll find references to its leaves being used for everything from an herbal tea to help one sleep or soothe a cough to them being smoked!  Of course, most of this information is found in the forums, so it is not medically proven nor guaranteed not to be harmful.  However, I believe that I will gather some of the leaves and give the tea idea a try.

If, by chance, you do not see any more posts from me, then this could be BAD news and a warning not to try it yourself!