Acanthus mollis
Acanthaceae
June to August
The garden plant is found throughout the country.
The naturalised escape is found mainly in the Southwest
and in Greater London.
It is thinly scattered in other southern areas.
See the BSBI distribution map for Bear's-breech
It is a neophyte, which has been grown in England since
the late 1540s and known in the wild since the 1820s.
It grows and persists where it has been dumped from
gardens, e.g., on waste ground, in woods and hedge
banks, and beside roads and railway lines.
It spreads rapidly in neglected gardens.
In the Southwest the escape is mainly round the coast.
Bear's-breech is robust, clump-forming, perennial herb,
growing up to 1.5m.
Flowers are in tall spikes up to 80cm tall.
Individual flowers are big (up to 5cm), white with lilac
veins, and have only the lower lip, which is 3-lobed.
The calyx is purple and divided into 4 sepals which
make up the corolla tube.here is a large upper and
lower lip and 2 small lateral lobes.
There are 4 stamens which fuse to give 2 hairy anthers.
The style is filiform and the stigma is divided.
Bracts are oval, spiny and toothed, and tinged purple.
Capsules are globose.
Leaves are mainly basal and up to 60cm and range
from oblong-ovate to lobed and deeply divided.
Stems are stout.
Bear's-breech is more common than the related
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Bear's-breech, West Bay, Dorset
Flower spike - purple calyx
Flowers- 3-lobed lip and purple calyx
Filiform style with divided stigma
4 stamens with hairy anthers
Capsules
Close-up of capsule
Large leaves below flower spikes
Leaves with large rounded lobes
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