Common Teasel

Blooming

Just about everyone around the world recognizes this spiny plant’s egg-shaped seed head when it’s dried (see photo below) but this is what a teasel looks like in bloom. As you can see, I’m not the only one who’s fascinated by the flower. The bumblebee likes it too.

Before Blooming

Until the nineteeth century, the common teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) was widely used by the textile industry as a natural comb. Weavers used them to clean, align and raise the nap on wool fabrics. Even today, some handweavers prefer natural teasels to to metal ones for raising fabric nap because the seedheads break rather than rip the fabric.

Seedhead

Gardeners sometimes plant thistles to attract winter birds such as goldfinches into their yards . Goldfinches find teasel seeds irresistible. '-) These, however, were planted by Mother Nature in a roadside field.