Common Teasel

Common Teasel, Fuller's Teasel

(Dipsacus fullonum L.)

Teasel Family (Dipsacaceae)

▲ first year rosette, showing spiny "bumps" on leaf top surfaces

▲ young plant showing toothed (but not deeply lobed), lanceolate leaves, with spiny bumps on leaf top surface and along midvein underneath leaves, and fused leaf bases around stem

▲ Mature, flowering plants

▲ common teasel inflorescence; common teasel has lavender flowers while cutleaf teasel has white flowers

▲ spiny stems and opposite, lanceolate leaves

▲ dried inflorescences persist on dead plants

Common Teasel:

• a biennial weed from Europe with spiny stems and leaves that grows 2-5 feet tall
• leaves opposite, lanceolate, clasping the stems
• flowers purple in densely arranged in spiny, ovoid heads at the top of the plants
• inflorescence used in dried floral arrangements and had been used to comb wool and raise the nap on woven cloths
• can distinguish from cutleaf teasel by the deeply lobed leaves on cutleaf teasel, plus the tiny flowers in the "comb" of cutleaf teasel are white, not purplish