Echinops

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Asteraceae

• Scientific Name

  Echinops

• Description

  Genus Description - Heads 1-fld, numerous, closely aggregated into globose secondary heads that often have a common invol of a few narrow, reflexed bracts; proper invol subtended by a tuft of capillary bristles, narrow, its bracts well imbricate, firm, often awn- tipped; fls tubular and perfect, the cor blue to purple or white, with slender tube and long, narrow lobes; anthers with a firm, narrow terminal appendage, shortly tailed at the base, the tails fringed-hairy; style with a ring of hairs and an abrupt change of texture below the rather short, papillate branches; achenes fusiform, hairy; pappus of numerous short setae or narrow scales, these distinct or ± united, forming a crown; spiny perennial thistles, generally ± white- tomentose, with alternate, toothed or pinnatifid lvs. 100, Old World.

• Common Names

  globe-thistle