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Scientific Name
Synonyms
Common Names
Family
Origin
Naturalised Distribution
Notes
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Wild teasel
Dipsacus fullonum subsp. fullonum

Scientific Name

Dipsacus fullonum L. subsp. fullonum

Synonyms

Dipsacus sylvestris Huds.
Dipsacus fullonum L.

Common Names

common teasel, Fuller's teasel, teasel, wild teasel, wild teazel, wild teazle

Family

Dipsacaceae

Origin

Native to northern Africa (i.e. northern Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia), Europe (i.e. Ireland, UK, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, France, Portugal, Spain, Moldova and Ukraine) and western Asia (i.e. Lebanon, Syria and northern Turkey).

Naturalised Distribution

Widely naturalised in south-eastern Australia (i.e. on the central and southern tablelands of New South Wales, in southern and eastern Victoria and in Tasmania).

Naturalised overseas in southern Africa, New Zealand, USA and South America.

Notes

Wild teasel (Dipsacus fullonum subsp. fullonum) is regarded as an environmental weed in Victoria and Tasmania. While it is mainly a weed of pastures and roadsides, it sometimes also grows in natural communities and forms a large basal rosette of leaves in the early stages of growth. This rosette of leaves can cover a large area and shade other ground-dwelling plants nearby.



infestation (Photo: Trevor James)


habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)


basal rosette of large lower leaves (Photo: Sheldon Navie)


prickly branched stems and paired upper leaves (Photo: Sheldon Navie)


elongated upper leaf (Photo: Trevor James)


close-up of prickly stem and leaf underside (Photo: Sheldon Navie)


young flower cluster subtended by several elongated bracts (Photo: Trevor James)


flower cluster in flower (Photo: Sheldon Navie)


immature seed-head (Photo: Sheldon Navie)


mature seed-head (Photo: Rob and Fiona Richardson)


close-up of seeds (Photo: Steve Hurst at USDA PLANTS Database)


young plant (Photo: Sheldon Navie)