Echinops L.

Globe Thistle

Greek echinos — hedgehog, an allusion to the spiny receptacle scales.

Perennial or rarely annual herbs, spiny. Stems erect or ascending, simple or branching. Leaves along stems, alternate, entire to lobed, spiny. Capitula diskoid, 1-flowered, many grouped together in dense terminal spherical compound heads, surrounded by small bracts. Involucral bracts in 3 or 4 overlapping rows, surrounded by white bristles. Receptacle minute. Florets bisexual, blue, greenish or white. Achenes cylindrical, angled, hairy. Pappus a crown of free or fused scales.

One species has become naturalised in Australia.

Single-flowered capitula in spherical compound heads.

About 120 species from Europe, Africa and Asia.

Source: Lawson, L.; Spencer, R. (2002). Dahlia. 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.

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kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Magnoliopsida
superorder     Asteranae
order      Asterales
family       Asteraceae
Higher taxa
Subordinate taxa
species         Echinops bannaticus Schrad.
species         Echinopsis aurea Britton & Rose