Teasel, Dipsacus fullonum, is a spiny plant with an ominous past. The Iroquois considered the root poisonous and used it accordingly to poison an enemy and even the innocent. The water gathered in the base of the leaves was used as a wash for acne and to cool inflammation of the eyes. Modern herbalists are looking at the plant as a possible treatment for Lyme Disease. The plant was also used as a brush and the stalk has been experimented with as a spindle for fiction fire in conjunction with a clematis fire board.
Keep your eyes and ears open and your powder dry!
Teasel Sources:
Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software. Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.
Beneficial Botanicals; Useful Plants for Our World. Web.
Herrick, James William. Iroquois Medical Botany. Ph.D. Thesis, New York: State University of New York, Albany 1977. Print. pg. 226-227
Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany, Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. pg. 201
Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 160-161
United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.
Wescott, David. Primitive Technology; A Book of Earth Skills, Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999. pg. 45
Teasel root cures diarrhea. Maybe the Indians were playing with somebody.
I often wonder about that. I take many of the remedies with a grain of salt.
I have boiled and eaten teasel root. I shredded off the outside like a carrot. That outside part tasted like potato with celery strings in it. The inside part of the root was bitter like dandelion root. A coffee substitute similar to dandelion root coffee might be made from roasted inner teasel root. However, unlike dandelion coffee. teasel coffee would be naturally caffeinated.
thanks very good contents, good editing and details for all readers,
I’m in OC, in CA.
making folder , files for edible weeds,
it take time to learn the uses, effects, recipes of edible weeds.
email if you have new posts [edible or not,, any plants] or animals,
food waste articles, economy, philosophy, religion, but not politics.
I want to study biology [plant] if I was young.
Thanks for stopping by and for the compliment. You are right it does take a lot of time to learn all of the facets that comes with each plant. I try to keep my economic, philosophical, religious, and political beliefs to myself. Nothing ruins a friendship faster.
-Mike