Teasel Family [Dipsacaceae] |
status
flower
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petals
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type
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6th Aug 2015, nr Rowsley, White Peaks. | Photo: © RWD |
growing way higher than your Author and the hedges. Here only two or three left in flower; the rest having turned to fruit. |
6th Aug 2015, nr Rowsley, White Peaks. | Photo: © RWD |
The domed fruits with a flattish bottom. |
17th June 2014, a garden, Warton, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
A perennial which grows to 2m, much taller than any other Scabious. |
17th June 2014, a garden, Warton, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Has a pale-yellow flower atop each long stalk. |
17th June 2014, a garden, Warton, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowers about 40 - 100mm across, much larger than any other Scabious. |
17th June 2014, a garden, Warton, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Like Field Scabious has florets with long petals around the periphery and numerous much smaller florets in the centre, but it does not belong to the Daisy Family (Asteraceaee). |
1st July 2014, a garden, Parwich, Derbyshire. | Photo: © RWD |
Here central florets yet to open. The ones further out have opened and are displaying their stamens with large anthers. |
1st July 2014, a garden, Parwich, Derbyshire. | Photo: © RWD |
The florets all have four petals. |
1st July 2014, a garden, Parwich, Derbyshire. | Photo: © RWD |
The anthers are attached to the stamen like handles on wine-bottle openers. Anthers often twisted and with a rectangular cross-section. |
17th June 2014, a garden, Warton, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The bracts at the back of the flower are chocolate-brown with long hairs. The stems have short hairs. |
17th June 2014, a garden, Warton, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Petals falling off, turning to fruit. |
17th June 2014, a garden, Warton, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The developing fruit has triangular dark-brown bracts all over like a pin-cushion. |
1st July 2014, a garden, Parwich, Derbyshire. | Photo: © RWD |
Fruits more developed. |
1st July 2014, a garden, Parwich, Derbyshire. | Photo: © RWD |
The fruits have grown almost as long as the interspersing triangular bracts. |
6th Aug 2015, nr Rowsley, White Peaks. | Photo: © RWD |
The fruits are elongated box in shape with a green hemi-rounded top which has many long and short hairs. The 4 sides are very pale green, almost white, concolourous with the stalks. |
6th June July 2016, a garden, Warton, Carnforth.. | Photo: © RWD |
An as-yet un-opened flower bud, sepal bracts showing just around the periphery, interstitial bracts separating the florets. |
1st July 2014, a garden, Parwich, Derbyshire. | Photo: © RWD |
An as-yet un-opened flower bud a month later in the season, sepal bracts showing just around the periphery, interstitial bracts separating the florets. The petals (pale green at first) are just starting to emerge from between the outer bracts. |
17th June 2014, a garden, Warton, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The leaves are 1-pinnate, with long lanceolate leaflets, in opposite pairs, the leaflets having somewhat irregular teeth. |
6th Aug 2015, nr Rowsley, White Peaks. | Photo: © RWD |
They are very distinctive with their wings looking like tapering flanges on the stem as it tapers to the 'trefoil' leaf at the end. |
6th Aug 2015, nr Rowsley, White Peaks. | Photo: © RWD |
Fascinating broadening wings on the rachis of the pinnate leaf. |
6th Aug 2015, nr Rowsley, White Peaks. | Photo: © RWD |
The leaves have forward-pointing but blunt teeth on their edges, which here have a reddish border. The leaf stems are also reddish. |
6th Aug 2015, nr Rowsley, White Peaks. | Photo: © RWD |
The last leaflet of the trefoil leaf partially overlaps te side-leaves, another distinctive feature. |
POSSIBLY |
14th Aug 2020, a garden, Greater M/cr. | Photo: © Judy Samuel |
A specimen with a somewhat whiter and smaller inflorescence. Unopened flower bud on right. Your Author wonders if it is possible that this apparently smaller whiter specimen (rather than pale yellow) from Judy Samuel is instead the related Cephalaria leucantha. It shares the same common name as Giant Scabious, but has a differing binomial name; Cephalaria leucantha and appeared all of a sudden in Judys' garden in the year 2020, so it is possibly bird-sown and therefore perhaps a candidate for future inclusion in Staces' tomb 'New Flora of the British Isles'. |
14th Aug 2020, a garden, Greater M/cr. | Photo: © Judy Samuel |
Unopened flower bud with dark-brown bracts. |
16th Aug 2020, a garden, Greater M/cr. | Photo: © Judy Samuel |
Unopened flower bud from the top. |
14th Aug 2020, a garden, Greater M/cr. | Photo: © Judy Samuel |
The leaves are most distinctive with opposite leaflets smaller near the root and much larger towards the summit, which is terminated by 3 leaflets, the end one the largest of them all. The only difference in the leaves that your Author has noticed is that the leaf teeth here are larger and far fewer in number with large gaps between the teeth. |
14th Aug 2020, a garden, Greater M/cr. | Photo: © Judy Samuel |
Moreover, the leaves have tapering narrow wings which get wider the further along the stem they are. The leafless leaf stem nearer the ground still has a very narrow wing. The leaflet teeth are irregular - with this specimen having far fewer but larger teeth than the specimen from the garden in Warton above. |
Cannot be mistaken for : any other Scabious because of its tall 2m height and large pale-yellow flowers. Some similarities to : Small Teasel (Dipsacus pilosus) but that is shorter at 1.5m and has white flowers with long thin and narrow bracts which are yellow-green. The leaves are also very different.
Slight resemblance to : Uniquely identifiable characteristics Distinguishing Feature : A garden plant that also sometimes escapes into the wild from where it may persist and spread in scattered places on waste ground or on rough grassy places, although your Author has never seen it growing wild.
There is a shorter Cephalarea called Although its common name is a Scabious, all those belong to differing genera, although they all reside in the Teasel Family (Dipsacaceae)
Note that Small Scabious (Scabiosa columbaria), Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis), Devil's-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis) and
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Cephalaria | gigantea | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Dipsacaceae |
Cephalaria (Giant Scabious) |
Teasel Family [Dipsacaceae] |