SPECIES DESCRIPTION
ECHINOPS SPINOSISSIMUS subsp. SPINOSISSIMUS
Family and Genus:- See- COMPOSITAE/Sect. RYTRODES
Common Names:- Globe-thistle
Homotypic 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 hairys
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;
a) outer, spathulate, acuminate or shortly spinose, patent subulate distally,
dentate, not more than ½ as long as capitulum.
b) middle, 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
