Common Teasel - Dipsacus fullonum
Other Names:
Fuller's Teasel, Wild Teasel, Venuscup Teasel,
Dipsacus sylvestris
Taprooted biennial. Stems erect, branched, angled, 50–200 cm. Herbage glabrous except for hooked prickles on stem and midribs. Basal leaves oblanceolate, crenate, withering with flowering. Stem leaves lanceolate, 5–30 cm long, dentate below, becoming connate above. Heads ovoid, 2–8 cm high; involucral bracts linear, prickly, unequal, 1–15 cm long; bracts between flowers lanceolate, awned. Flowers: calyx silky, 4-angled; corolla 4-lobed, light blue above, white below, pubescent, 10–15 mm long; lobes up to 1 mm long; stigma entire; stamens exserted. Achene 4-angled cylindrical, 4–6 mm long (
Lesica et al. 2012. Manual of Montana Vascular Plants. BRIT Press. Fort Worth, TX).
POLLINATORS The following animal species have been reported as pollinators of this plant species or its genus where their geographic ranges overlap:
Bombus vagans,
Bombus appositus,
Bombus auricomus,
Bombus centralis,
Bombus fervidus,
Bombus nevadensis,
Bombus pensylvanicus,
Bombus bimaculatus,
Bombus griseocollis, and
Bombus insularis (Thorp et al. 1983, Mayer et al. 2000, Colla and Dumesh 2010, Koch et al. 2012, Williams et al. 2014).