Teasels Print E-mail
Edible gardening
Teasel
In the hedgerows when you are out for a walk and you will see all sort of interesting things happening. If you are lucky you could see the remains of old teasels. Teasels are fascinating plants that seem to appear out of nowhere. They are usually seen on roadsides, disturbed waste ground and in unused quarries. The plant is native to Ireland and gets its name from its former use for raising the nap on cloth, teasing it out with the spiky seed heads. Teasel Dipsacus fullonum, was obviously grown in bygone times for this purpose. The plants are still popular to-day but are grown for a more ornamental purpose.

People like to use the decorative seed heads in dried winter flower arrangements. The seeds are shed from these if they are left to mature and they can pop up, years later, often in unexpected places. The teasel is given credit for attracting goldfinches into the garden, but they probably attract more species, as the seeds will be an attractive addition to the winter menu. Another plant that you might see in the hedgerow is soapwort.

 

 

Trackback(0)
Comments (0)Add Comment
feedSubscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment
smaller | bigger

security code
Write the displayed characters


busy
 
Creative Commons License
Gardening Ireland by gardening.ie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.