Dipsacus japonica seed
LATIN NAME: Dipsacus japonicus
COMMON NAME: Japanese Teasel
The Japanese teasel is the tall, spiny plant of the waysides, with the oval, spiny flower heads. The upright, branching biennial carries the prickly, lobed leaves along the tall stems, and the oval, egg-shaped flower heads open in the summer, banded with the small, white, purple and pink flowers, to be followed by the dry, spiny heads that hold their shape through the winter. The plant is a fine, bold presence of the open ground, and the dried heads are a favourite of the dried-flower arrangements. It is a plant of the open, sunny, well-drained ground.
Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology
The Japanese teasel has carved a quiet but solid place in the plant science, and the biennial has been studied for the oval, egg-shaped flower heads and the banded rings of the small flowers. The chemistry of the root, which has a long record of use in the traditional practice of the East, has been looked at closely, and the plant keeps showing up in the work on the traditional remedies and the wayside plants. The prickly, lobed leaves and the dry, spiny heads that hold through the winter have also made it a fine garden plant, and the teasel is a regular subject of the studies of the plants of the old meadows.
Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications
The Japanese teasel does a lot of work in the garden and the old households. The banded, oval flower heads are a fine, bold presence through the summer, and the dry, spiny heads hold their shape through the winter, which makes them a favourite of the dried-flower arrangements and the winter borders. The tall, spiny plant has a long record of use in the traditional practice of the East, and the flower heads feed the bees and the small insects. It has been written up in the botanical and the horticultural papers for the bold heads and the old uses, and it is a fine, easy plant of the open, sunny, well-drained garden.
The Japanese teasel is one of the fine, bold plants of the open ground, and the oval, egg-shaped flower heads are banded with the small, white, purple and pink flowers through the summer. The dry, spiny heads hold their shape through the winter, which makes them a favourite of the dried-flower arrangements, and the tall, prickly plant has a long record of use in the traditional practice of the East.
To grow the Japanese teasel from seed, sow the small seeds half a centimetre deep in pots of moist, free-draining soil, covering them thinly, keep them in a bright, open spot and water gently. The seedlings thread up within a few weeks and grow on steadily. With the sun and the well-drained ground, the bold, banded flower heads will rise through the summer.