Latin globulus — small round head, referring to the flower heads.

Mostly evergreen herbs and subshrubs. Leaves alternate or in basal rosettes, leathery, entire or with a few sharp teeth. Flowers bisexual, irregular, stalkless, in dense involucrate heads. Calyx and corolla tubular, petals blue. Stamens 4 in 2 pairs, attached at the mouth of the flower tube. Ovary superior, with 1 chamber. Fruit 1-seeded, enclosed in the calyx.

Grown mostly as rock garden plants.

Seed; rhizomatous species by division.

Mostly small, tufted to spreading plants with flowers in fluffy involucrate heads.

23 species from the Cape Verde Islands, the Canary Islands,W Asia and Europe.

Source: Spencer, R. (2002). Globulariaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.