Hybridizes with : Wild Teasel (Dipsacus fullonium) to produce Dipsacus × pseudosilvester - which has occurred with both parents present in Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Cambridgeshire and Middlesex.

Resembles : Wild Teasel (Dipsacus fullonium) but that does not have leaves which are cut to halfway or slightly more.

Uniquely identifiable characteristics

Distinguishing Feature : A Teasel with cut leaves.

Apparently it is monocarpic, living for several years but flowering only for one year before dying, which may explain why there are no flowers visible in photos of the flower heads, only the vacant spaces between the long sharp bracts in the above photos from Liss in Hants. When it does flower, the flowers start in a circle around the centre of the inflorescence, which then progresses north and south. Each individual floret only flowers for one day before dying, but there are potentially up to 1500 flowers in a flowerhead (but not simultaneously). The fruits are achenes just under 1 cm long.

The upper paired leaves are cupped and collect water into which insects may fall and drown. Although Teasel is only proto-carnivorous, not depending upon absorbing the nutrients from dead insects, but it may take advantage of those extra nutrients when available. It is not fully carnivorous, lacking the enzymes necessary to dissolve the insects, but relies more on natural decomposition.