Botanical name: Dipsacus fullonum
Folk names: Brushes and combs, Venus’s basin

Type: Biennial

Wildlife: Attracts lots of bumblebees to feed on the flowers - there’s usually at least one bumblebee permanently feeding on it in my garden. You may be lucky to find a peacock butterfly or summer generation brimstone butterfly nectaring on the flowers. Sparrows drink from the water captured between the leaves and stems. Goldfinches love the seeds in winter. Moth larvae, such as the teasel marble, may nestle within the seedheads.

Flowers: July to August

Decorative merit: Tall, branching plant with conical prickly flowerheads of tiny mauve flowers appearing around the flowerhead over an extended flowering time. Erect, ribbed and prickly stems have side branches and are cupped at the base by leaves that catch water. The tall silhouette up to 3m high and seedheads provide striking winter interest.  

Where: Shade or part-sun. Back of a border or in a wilder corner where you may need to support it with canes.  Mine is near the washing line where I have I have an eye-level view of the bumblebees feeding on it. Will self-seed but the rosette of long, spiky leaves are easy to spot and pull out – just leave one or two so you have a teasel in flower every year.

Folklore: Its spiny heads were used to ‘tease’ out the separate fibres of wool before spinning (a process known as carding) or to raise the pile or ‘nap’ of finished cloth. Used in Exeter when it was a hub for the woollen cloth industry (teasel heads are part of the coat of arms of Tuckers Hall).

Honeysuckle family relative.

Donate seeds to Exeter Seed Bank