What a difference a season can make! The changes in my Teasel plants are amazing since I first posted about them in January ( http://ethnobotanist128.blogspot.com/2015/01/teasel-root.html ) If you check out the photos in the last post you can see the mat of dense scraggly winter burned plants that were no taller than 6"tall. They stayed that way through the rest of the winter and I often wondered whether they were going to survive because of the way they looked.
As the days started to get noticeably longer and some warmer weather started to move in I started to notice a growth spurt and it seemed over night they grew about a foot taller and they just kept going from there. It is now June and they are taller than me and in bloom! I cant wait to collect the seeds and the dried flower stalks.
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| As the Teasel just began to get flower heads, they were as tall as my shoulder. |
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| The flower heads just appearing |
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| The leaves are opposite, sessile and clasping on a very prickly stalk. |
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| Many of the leaves formed small wells where puddles gathered after the rain. |
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| By the time the flowers began opening, the plants were over a foot above my head ( I am 5'8") |
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| At first, the flower heads showed a slight purple ring around the center. |
That purple ring bloomed into the first flowers
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| Some Bloomed in two rows |
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Closeup of the flowers
To be continued!
