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Wild plant ID

pitter-patterpitter-patter Posts: 2,429
edited May 2019 in Wildlife gardening
I’ve seen this as I was walking today. It has small spikes along the midrib and on the leaf blade itself. It also has quite a reservoir of water gathered where the leaves join together.


Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Teasel 😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    glorious plant - the birds love them. Pricklier than a prickly thing with spikes when they flower
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • pitter-patterpitter-patter Posts: 2,429
    Thank you, Dove. I should be able to recognise it now even without the striking flower heads. I was very intrigued by its appearance today. It seemed almost... carnivorous. 
  • pitter-patterpitter-patter Posts: 2,429
    Thank you, @raisingirl. I love teasels, I just didn’t recognise it at this stage.
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    There have been studies that suggest that teasel is partially carnivorous due to the insects trapped in those water pools around the leaf bases. There's also a lot of folklore about the use of the water in herbal remidies apparently. It looks like a pretty manky insect soup most of the time so I'll pass on whatever they use it for. :#
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • pitter-patterpitter-patter Posts: 2,429
    Thanks, @wild edges, that’s really interesting.
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