Globe thistle, Southern globethistle, Blue globe thistle echinops (lat. Echinops ritro)
A perennial herbaceous plant up to 1 m tall, on average 30-80 cm. The taproot is poorly branched, thick. The stem is simple or somewhat branching in the upper part, whitish. The leaves are alternate, 6-20 cm long, glabrous or slightly cobwebby above, dark green, whitish-green below, oblong, deeply pinnate-separate. The lower stem and basal leaves are petiolate, the rest are sessile, gradually decreasing towards the top of the stem. The lobes of the leaves are oblong-ovate, lanceolate or linear, sharp, barbed along the edge. The flowers are tubular, 2 cm long, are a single-flowered basket, have a multi-row wrapper consisting of three types of leaflets. The outer leaves of the wrapper are bristly, shorter than the inner ones. The middle ones are almost equal to the outer ones, they have the form of leaflets, rhombic at the top and narrowed to the base in a long petiole. The inner ones are lanceolate, glabrous along the keel, pointed, ciliated along the edges, equal in length to the corolla tube. Calyx in the form of a tuft of short bristles. The corolla is blue, tubular, more than half dissected. There are five stamens, blue anthers. Pistil with a lower single-nest hairy ovary, a long forked column up to half and a stigma bent downwards. The flowers are collected in a large spherical multi-flowered (up to 200 flowers) head 2.5(3)-4 (5) cm in diameter, devoid of a common wrapper. The heads are located singly at the ends of the stem and branches. Blooms in July-August. The fruits are narrowed cylindrical achenes 7-9 mm long with the hairs pressed up. Achenes are equipped with a tuft of bristles. The fruits ripen in August — September.