Flora of New Zealand Series

Annual to perennial herbs. Latex 0. Lvs often spiny, alternate. Capitula each with 1 floret, clustered together in globular heads. Floret tubular, ⚥. Involucral bracts in 3-5 rows, the outer divided into bristles. Anther bases sagittate. Style with short diverging branches, bristly but not thickened at union of branches. Pappus of short erect bristles or scales, in 1 row, free or united into a collar.

2 genera, 121 spp., Eurasia, N. and E. Africa.

Fig. 34. Echinops ritro, involucre of a single capitulum. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X4S]