Teasel (redirected from Dipsacus)

teasel, common name for some members of the Dipsacaceae, a family of chiefly Old World herbs found mostly in the Mediterranean and Balkan areas but ranging to India and to S Africa. Species of Dipsacus and Scabiosa have become widely naturalized in America. Scabiosa, commonly called sweet scabious, mourning bride, or pincushion flower (for its head of small, lacy flowers) includes several ornamentals and was formerly used as a remedy for the itch (scabies). Fuller's teasel (D. fullonum) is a noxious biennial weed whose heads of small flowers bear sharp prongs have been used in the textile industry for teasing or raising the nap on wool. Teasels are often used in everlasting bouquets. Teasels are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Dipsacales.

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teasel

Any of about 15 species constituting the genus Dipsacus of the family Dipsacaceae (the teasel family), native to Europe, the Mediterranean area, and tropical Africa. Many teasels are prickly, coarse biennials with tall-domed heads of numerous, four-lobed flowers that sit on a crownlike circle of spiny, narrow bracts. The spiny, dry fruiting heads of fuller's teasel (D. sativus) have been used since Roman times to raise the nap of woolen fabrics in a process known as fulling.

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teasel, teazel, teazle

1. any of various stout biennial plants of the genus Dipsacus, of Eurasia and N Africa, having prickly leaves and prickly heads of yellow or purple flowers: family Dipsacaceae

2. 

a. the prickly dried flower head of the fuller's teasel, used for teasing

b. any manufactured implement used for the same purpose

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teasel

indicates hatred of mankind. [Flower Symbolism: Flora Symbolica, 178]

See : Misanthropy

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Teasel

(Dipsacus), a genus of herbaceous plants of the family Dipsacaceae. They are biennial, less frequently perennial, grasses with prickly stems 0.5-2.0 m high. The stem leaves are opposite, often in connate pairs at the base. The flowers are small, gathered in globose racemes that may be elongated or spherical. The genus comprises 15-20 species growing in Europe (mainly the Mediterranean countries), South and East Asia, and Africa. In the USSR there are six species, in the southern European part, the Caucasus, and Middle Asia, rarely (one species) in Western Siberia.

Fuller’s teasel (D. sativus or D. fullonum) has practical significance. A biennial that in the first year forms a thickened root and a rosette of dark green elongated leaves up to 25 cm long, and, in the subsequent year, a stem 0.8-1.5 m long, fuller’s teasel has racemes at its apex and lateral branches of friezing cones 7-11 cm long. When they ripen they form a seed ball with sharp, stiff bracts of scaly hooks that are curved downward. These friezing cones are used in the textile industry as cards for teasing fabric (combing the nap). The plant has been cultivated since ancient times. In the USSR it is grown in the Crimea, the Caucasus, and Middle Asia. The yield of cones is 6-7 centners per hectare.

Teasel is planted in the plowed area of crop rotation. It is sown in the spring with interrow intervals of 60-70 m at a depth of 3-5 cm; the sowing norm is 5-7 kg/hectare. In the first year the plantings are harrowed before the sprouts ap-pear, hoed four or five times, thinned to a distance of 15, and then 30, cm, and hilled in the winter. In the second year more plants are planted in the thinned places, hoeing is done two to four times, and the plants are shaped—that is, six to eight cones are left on each plant and the apical and small cones are removed. Teasel is gathered when it is technically mature, in three or four operations, cutting the cones with a pruner (with stem knife of 20-25 cm); then the cones are dried, the leaves at the base and the pappi at the top are removed, and the cones are sorted and packed in boxes.

REFERENCE

Orlov, V. T. Vozdelyvanie vorsianki. Moscow, 1950.

M. E. KIRPICHNIKOV and V. T. ORLOV