Teasel is a tall bristly erect plant of waysides and waste ground, with small violet or lilac flowers on a spiny egg-shaped head. The dried heads, which last throughout the winter, are sometimes sprayed with gold paint and used as decorations. The heads were also used in the process of fulling cloth: once the cloth was washed and beaten, it was stretched onto a large frame and the nap raised by dragging teasel heads across the cloth.
The leaf bases fuse around the stem to form cups, which collect rainwater. Insects get drowned in these cups, and are broken down by bacteria, which may provide additional nutrients for the plant.

Ripe seed heads		Prickly stem		Leaves, with prickles located only on underside of midribs

Rainwater collecting in cups