| Author | L. | |
| Distribution | Mostly in the Mountains; a few records from the Piedmont. First collected in 1893 on Big Bald Mtn., Yancey County.
Native of Europe; in N.A. essentially throughout southern Canada and the U.S. | |
| Abundance | Uncommon to fairly common in the northern Mountains; infrequent south to Haywood County. Rare in the western half of the Piedmont. | |
| Habitat | Barnyards, pastures, fields, roadbanks, waste ground. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting July-October. | |
| Identification | Common Teasel is a fairly familiar field weed in the northern mountains. It is unique in our flora by having flower heads that are elliptical and subtended by long skinny bracts (a few inches long), tiny lavender to pink 4-petaled flowers, and receptacle bracts with long stiff awns. The leaves are triangular-ovate, long-tapered, and clasping. The stems and leaves are prickly. Oddly, the flowers start blooming in a narrow band in the middle of the head -- at the "equator", and spread top-wards and bottom-wards from there! Do not confuse wintertime fruits with those of Datura. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | Here we include D. sylvestris as being only of minor taxonomic value.
Weakley (2020) spilts out family Dipsacaceae from Caprifoliaceae, including genera Dipsacus, Knautia. The references he cites do not reach a consensus and so we will await further developments. | |
| Other Common Name(s) | | |
| State Rank | SE | |
| Global Rank | GNR | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | FACU link |
| USACE-emp | FACU link |
