Biennial herb to about 2 m tall with prickly ridged stems. Leaves basal and along the stem, oblanceolate to lanceolate, the margins round-toothed (crenate) fused and cupped at the base. Flower heads ovoid to spherical, the slender basal involucral bracts mostly directed upwards. Flowers lilac to white, with thin spiny bracts. [D. sylvestris Huds.]

Eurasia

Naturalised in NSW and Vic as a pasture weed extending south from Moss Vale, NSW.

 

D. sativus (L.) Honck., Fuller's Teasel (Wild Teasel), from Europe, N Africa and the Middle East is so-called because the dried flower heads were once used for preparing a nap on woollen cloth, the process being referred to as 'fulling'; the precise origin of the species is uncertain. [D. fullonum L. subsp. sativus (L.) Thell.]. Naturalised in SA.

Source: Spencer, R. (2002). Dipsacaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.