Fuller's Teasel, Wild Teasel, Dipsacus fullonum

Home

Plants

Tree of Life

Healthy Home Gardening

Fuller's Teasel, Wild Teasel

Dipsacaceae
Dipsacus fullonum

gardengeek

Dipsacaceae Family

$Fuller\'s Teasel, Wild Teasel$

Dipsacus Genus

Location

native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa.

Physical Description

tall herbaceous biennial plants . The leaves are lanceolate, 20-40 cm long and 3-6 cm broad, with a row of small spines on the underside of the midrib.

prickly stem and leaves, and the inflorescence of purple, dark pink or lavender flowers that form a head on the end of the stem(s). The inflorescence is ovoid, 4-10 cm long and 3-5 cm broad, with a basal whorl of spiny bracts.

Fuller's Teasel, Wild Teasel, Dipsacus fullonum - YouTube.com

Compare Species
?

Dipsacaceae

Dipsacales

Thirsty Order (Teasel)

Euasterids II

Real Stars Group Two

Asteridae

Class of Stars (Daisies)

Core Eudicots

Main, Real, Two First-Leaves (Dicots)

Eudicots

Real, Two First-Leaves (Dicots)

Mesangiospermae

Half Capsule Seed Division

Magnolia Division

Seed Plants

Real Land Plants

Multiple Spore Sub-Kingdom

Stomatophytes

Air Pores Sub-Kingdom

Embryophytes

Multicellular Land Plants

Streptobionta

Multicellular Plants

Plantae

Plants

Eukaryota

Cells with a Nucleus

General Information

teasel or teazel or teazle

-----------------------------

Dipsacus fullonum, syn. Dipsacus sylvestris, is a species of flowering plant known by the common names Fuller's teasel and wild teasel. It is native to Eurasia and North Africa, but it is known in the Americas, southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand as an introduced species and often a noxious weed. The inflorescence is a cylindrical array of lavender flowers which dries to a cone of spine-tipped hard bracts. It may be 10 centimeters long. D. fullonum is the wild form of Fuller's teasel; the cultivated form is generally recognised as a distinct species under the name Dipsacus sativus.

-------------

Sessile leaves merge at the stem. Rain water can collect in this receptacle; this may perform the function of preventing sap-sucking insects such as aphids from climbing the stem.

The first flowers begin opening in a belt around the middle of the spherical or oval flowerhead, and then open sequentially toward the top and bottom, forming two narrow belts as the flowering progresses. The dried head persists afterwards, with the small (4-6 mm) seeds maturing in mid autumn.
The seeds are an important winter food resource for some birds, notably the European Goldfinch; teasels are often grown in gardens and encouraged on nature reserves to attract them.

Contents