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Dipsacus
Also called Teasel, Teasels, Teazles
Teasels are tall biennial (occasionally short-lived perennial) herbs with prickly stems and spiny, egg-shaped flowerheads of purple, pink, lavender or white blooms. Grow them in full sun in open ground, as the dried seedheads are often used for crafts and historically for raising the nap on wool.
Dipsacus is a genus of flowering plant in the family Caprifoliaceae. The members of this genus are known as teasel. The genus includes about 15 species of tall herbaceous biennial plants (rarely short-lived perennial plants) growing to 1–2.5 metres (3.3–8.2 ft) tall. Dipsacus species are native to Europe, Asia and Africa.
Since Roman times, Fuller's teasel (the cultivar group Dipsacus fullonum Sativus Group; syn. D. sativus) was widely used in textile processing, as it provides a natural comb for cleaning, aligning and raising the nap on fabrics, particularly wool (i.e. 'fulling'). The product of the teasing process is called teased wool. The cultivar differs from the wild type in having stouter, somewhat recurved spines on the seed heads. The dried flower heads were attached to spindles, wheels, or cylinders, sometimes called teasel frames, to raise the nap on fabrics (that is, to tease the fibres). By the 20th century, teasels had been largely replaced by metal cards, which can be made uniformly and do not require constant replacement as the teasel heads wear. However, some people who weave wool still prefer to use teasels for raising the nap, claiming that the result is better; in particular, if a teasel meets serious resistance in the fabric, it will break, whereas a metal tool will rip the cloth.
Ethanol extracts of Dipsacus asper contain phenolic acids including caffeic acid, 2,6-dihydroxycinnamic acid, vanillic acid, 2′-O-caffeoyl-D-glucopyranoside ester, and caffeoylquinic acid, iridoid glucosides, triterpenoids oleanic acid and akebiasaponin D.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dipsacus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
