Wild Teasel

The pale purple flowers of the familiar Wild Teasel appear in July.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Dipsacus fullonum
Family: 
Teasels
Family Latin name: 
DIPSACACEAE
Category: 
Flowering Plants
Vernacular names: 

Brushes and combs, Venus's basin

Species description

Species description

The pale purple flowers of this familiar tall native appear in July.  The dried heads are excellent for cleaning and teasing cloth, especially that made from the wool of downland sheep, prior to spinning, and raising the nap of cloth in hat making.  An infusion of root is used for skin eruptions, and as an ointment is good for warts, wens, cankers and fistulas.  Water trapped in the base of teasel leaves is said to be good for sore eyes.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

The flowers are grouped in dense heads, and the fruits are enclosed in the spiky heads.

Category information

Nucleic multicellular photosynthetic organisms lived in freshwater communities on land as long ago as a thousand million years, and their terrestrial descendants are known from the late Pre-Cambrian 850 million years ago. Embryophyte land plants are known from the mid Ordovician, and land plant structures such as roots and leaves are recognisable in mid Devonian fossils. Seeds seem to have evolved by the late Devonian. The Embryophytes are green land plants that form the bulk of the Earth’s vegetation. They have specialised reproductive organs and nurture the young embryo sporophyte. Most obtain their energy by photosynthesis, using sunlight to synthesise food from Carbon Dioxide and Water.

The earliest known plant group is the Archaeplastida, which were autotrophic. Listing just the surviving descendants, which evolved in turn, we have the Red Algae, the Chlorophyte Green Algae, the Charophyte Green Algae, and then the Embryophyta or land plants. The earliest embryophytes were the Liverworts, followed by the Hornworts, and the Mosses. Then we have the Vascular Plants, the Lycophytes and Ferns, followed by the Spermatophytes or seed plants, the Gnetophytes, Conifers, Ginkgos, and Cycads, and finally the Magnoliophyta (Angiosperms) or flowering plants.