Teasel
A tall spiny biennial with conical flower heads that bloom in an advancing band, and a plant that earns its place three times over — nectar for bumblebees in summer, seed for goldfinches in autumn, and hollow standing stems that solitary bees nest in over winter. Very few plants provide forage, food and habitat from the same structure.
Where not to plant it
Invasive in much of North America, where common and cut-leaved teasel form dense stands on roadsides and grassland and are listed noxious weeds in several states.
Value to bees
- Nectar
- High
- Pollen
- Moderate
- As a honey crop
- Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
- Which bees, and why
- Worked mainly by bumblebees, which handle the head easily, and by honey bees and butterflies. The winter role matters as much: hollow teasel stems left standing are used by yellow-faced bees, small carpenter bees and other stem-nesting species.
Florets are tubular but short enough for honey bees, though bumblebees dominate in practice.
- Worth knowing
- Good nectar at a useful moment, and its wider value is habitat rather than forage — the standing dead stems are among the best hollow-stem nesting sites a garden can offer.
Flowering
- In flower
- July to August (northern hemisphere)
Around six weeks, with the flowering band moving across each head over that period so the plant stays productive throughout.
- When nectar flows
- Good nectar in the late-summer gap. The paired leaves clasp the stem to form small cups that hold rainwater, which is where the name Dipsacus — from the Greek for thirst — comes from.
- Year-to-year variation
- Dependable. Not a honey crop.
Growing it
- Conditions
- Sun or light shade, most soils, and it tolerates damp heavy ground better than most meadow plants.
- Size
- 1.5-2.5 m in the second year.
- Native range
- Europe, North Africa and western Asia.
- Suits
- Meadow or wildflower area, Large gardens, Hedgerow
- Biennial: sow two years running and it self-perpetuates thereafter. It self-seeds enthusiastically, sometimes excessively.
- Leave the dead stems standing all winter and into the following summer. Cutting them in autumn removes both the goldfinch food and the bee nests.
- Too large and too spiny for a small border — give it a rough corner where its architecture is an asset.
What it looks like
A statuesque biennial forming a rosette in the first year and a prickly branched stem in the second, topped by egg-shaped spiny heads. Small lilac flowers open in a ring that moves up and down the head as the season progresses.
Sources
- Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland — Bloomsbury (2015) · Field guide
- HoneyHQ editorial synthesis — HEKNO Ltd · HoneyHQ synthesis
How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.
Guides covering this plant
- Plants that attract honey bees specificallyHoney bees have short tongues and work in large numbers, which means they want different plants from bumblebees. Half the flowers sold as bee-friendly are out of their reach entirely.
- A bee-friendly garden in Britain and IrelandAround 270 bee species, one honey bee among them, and a climate that gives you flowering months at both ends of the year that most of the world does not get. The British gaps are February and late June, and both are fixable.
- Nesting habitat: the half of bee gardening that is not flowersAround seventy per cent of bee species nest in bare ground and most of the rest in stems, wood or cavities. A garden can be full of flowers and offer nowhere at all to live.
- Plants for bumblebeesLong tongues, big bodies, cold tolerance and an annual colony that has to build from a single queen. Bumblebees can use flowers honey bees cannot reach, and they need forage at both ends of the year when honey bees are indoors.
Tools for planning planting
- Flowering calendar
What should I plant so that something is always in flower for bees?
- Bee-friendly garden planner
What should I plant in the space I actually have?
- Plant recommendation tool
Which plant fills this specific gap?