Flower of the Day

July 31, 2024

The teasel has been blooming in the Tin Cup Park and at the bottom of the ridge.

I mostly see white flowers on the teasel plants, but sometimes I see purple flowers on the teasel plants.

Teasel was a very useful plant until fairly recently. It is now considered an invasive species in some states.

From exploringbuildinghistory.co.uk: “The function of the dried teasel is to raise the nap on cloth. The Romans used the skin of a hedgehog for the purpose. In medieval cloth production the teasel heads were set onto a frame which could be pulled across the cloth. Later the heads were set on a revolving cylinder and the cloth passed in the opposite direction. The teasel hooks tear up the surface of the cloth. Unlike metal hooks the teasel hooks do not produce flaws in the finished cloth.

….

Once woollen cloth has been woven it needs to be processed further. Langland wrote circa 1370-90:

  …Is not comely to wear,

Till it be fulled under fote, or in fulling stocks;

Washen well with water, and with teasels scratched, 

Towked and teynted, and under talour’s hands.[ii]”