SPECIES DESCRIPTION
ECHINOPS SPINOSISSIMUS subsp. SPINOSISSIMUS
Family:- COMPOSITAE/Sect. RYTRODES
Common Names:- Globe-thistle
Synonyms:- None
Meaning:- Echinops (Gr) Resembling an Hedgehog.
Spinosissimus (L) Most spiny.
General description:- Perennial or annual.
Stem:-
1) 50-80 cm, branched, densely covered in stiff red bristly hairs.
Leaves:-
1) Ovate-lanceolate in outline, usually 2-pinnatisect, with simple, glandular hairy on
the veins beneath, white-tomentose.
2) Segments triangular to broadly lanceolate, with short, slender marginal spines.
Flowers:-
1) Inflorescence 3·5-5·5 cm in diam, greenish.
2) Involucre, 15-25 mm; setae equalling or slightly shorter than the outer bracts.
3) Bracts, 20, glabrous; outer bracts spathulate, acuminate or shortly spinose,
patent subulate distally, dentate, not more than ½ as long as capitulum.
4) Middle bracts lanceolate, long-spinose, equalling the outer, with marginal
spines twice as long as the capitulum or absent.
5) Corolla pale blue.
Fruit:-
1) Achenes with tuft of stiff hairs.
2) Pappus-setae connate at the base.
Key features:-
1) Middle involucral bracts less than twice as long as the outer, shortly spinose or
long-acuminate.
2) Involucre 15-25 mm, greenish.
3) Stems densely covered in stiff red bristly hairs.
Habitat:- Dry grassland, roadsides, fallow fields. 0-1000 m.
Distribution:- Sicily and Greece eastwards, including Crete and Cyprus.
Widespread and common on Crete.
Flowering time:- Mid-May to Aug.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
