We sowed wild Teasel, Dipsacus fullonum, last year which produced the low lying rosette. This year they have erupted. Teasel is a biennial, which means it flowers in its second year, much like Foxgloves. In the various botany books they are described as towering 2.5 metres, however some are in excess of 3 metres, or 10 foot.
When you look closer at this towering wonder, it appears almost primal. The stem is sturdy and adorned with spikes, the leaves are carrying thorns down the centre under support....
....but the most interesting feature is the cup at the base of the leaves. Rainwater gathers in this cup, which then acts as a 'catch-fly'. The botanical name of Dipsacus refers to the Greek word meaning 'to thirst', in the way rainwater collects.
Peter Shaw and Kyle Shackleton published a paper finally showing that the teasel is actually a carnivorous plant. They carried out field experiments treating teasels in one of three ways: (1) removing all insects in the cups one a week; (2) supplementing the cups with a dead maggot larvae a week (fed treatment) or leaving the teasels as they were (control). Their results show that although the treatments had no effect of the size attained by the plant, supplementing the plants did increase the weight of seeds set by 30%.
The Teasel was also used in the manufacture of woollen cloth, in the way it teased the nap of the fabric. https://www.exploringbuildinghistory.co.uk/the-teasel-in-the-english-woollen-cloth-industry/ is an interesting article on the importance of this dramatic plant.
Although not really used by herbalists, the water in the cups was considered beneficial, although those benefits are questionable especially when you see what is in that water, like dead beetles, flies, nemotodes. An ointment was said to be produced from its roots to cure warts.
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