Dipsacus fullonum - Wild Teasel seeds

Dipsacus sylvestris, also known as Common Teasel, Fuller's Teasel, or Field Teasel, is a wild plant that can easily reach an impressive size during flowering, in its second year. It displays upright flower heads in June-July, resembling spiky brushes, with small pinkish-purple flowers gradually blooming and emerging from bracts which remain long after flowering. The unique structure of its leaves is capable of retaining rainwater in small cups, where some birds come to drink. This undemanding plant, once so useful to humans, deserves a special place in a wild garden, a meadow bed, or as dried or fresh cut flowers.

The Common Teasel is native to North Africa, Europe, and Western Asia. This plant from the Dispacaceae family naturally grows in moist soils in ditches and riverbanks. In the first year, it forms a basal rosette of long pointed leaves that curl up when the plant flowers. This prickly plant can sometimes reach a height of 1.80 m (6ft). In the second year after sowing, at the end of solid leafy stems, it has flower heads about 8 cm (3in) long, upright on long pedicels. They bloom into pinkish-purple florets emerging from incurved and flexible bracts that are very durable, even after flowering. The rough, opposite leaves with spiny midribs, grouped in pairs along the flower stem are fused at the base to form cups where water accumulates. The true function of these cups is still under study, but it seems that teasels are capable of absorbing dissolved or suspended mineral substances, similar to some carnivorous plants. Goldfinches in particular like the ripe seeds, which they help disperse.

Sow teasels in wild beds and meadows, alongside other thistles or tall perennials like hybrid mulleins or Cephalaria gigantea. This plant will thrive near water and help to stabilise the banks.

Etymology: 'Dipsacus' is derived from the Greek Dipsan akeomaï = "I quench thirst." In Latin, Sylvestris = "wild, of the woods"; Fullonum = "fuller." A cultivated variety of teasel with elongated heads and downward-curved tips, Dipsacus sativus, was used in the wool industry for hand-finishing woollen fabrics.