Dipsacus fullonum
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Common name: Wild teasel, fuller's teasel
Dipsacus fullonum is an herbaceous biennial growing in the Mediterranean Garden. Tiny pink flowers form an egg-shaped head, which then dries into a spiky seed-head. Traditionally it was used as a sort of comb to raise the nap on nature fibres in a process called 'fulling'.
The Plant Collection Record also lists D. asper in the Sino-Himalayn Garden, planted in 1993, but it's not clear this plant survived. It is an important plant in traditional Asian medicine.
More about the Dipsacus genus.
Flower photo by Midge Oke.
Dried flower photo by AnRo0002, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons