Genus: Echinops
Genus description:
Perennial, rarely annual herbs with erect, sulcate stems. Leaves 1-to 2-pinnatifid. Capitula with 1 floret, grouped into 1 or more globose inflorescenses with laciniate basal bracts. Involucral bracts in 3-5 rows, with branched or simple, white setae outside them; inner bracts linear, fimbricate, of intermiediate length between the shorter outer and the middle bracts. Florets hermaphrodite; corolla tubular, blue or greyish to white; anters bluish-grey. Achenes cylindrical, angled, desely hairy; pappus of free to connate, scale-like setae.
Species and images:
