Synonyms: Eryngium sp. (not named at present) APNI*
Description: Annual or perennial herbs or rarely shrubs, glabrous.
Leaves entire, palmately or pinnately lobed to 3-pinnatisect, often spinose and pungent.
Inflorescence usually branched, flowers sessile in ± globose to cylindrical heads; involucre of 3 or more leafy spiny bracts; bracteoles small, entire, cuspidate. Flowers bisexual, white, greenish, blue or mauve. Sepals stiff, erect. Petals narrow, with a long inflexed apex, shorter than the sepals. Stylopodium absent.
Fruit ovoid, scarcely laterally compressed; carpophore absent; mericarps covered with small flat or bladdery scales, obscurely 5-ribbed.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 250 species, in tropical and warm-temperate areas. Australia: c. 7 species (4 species native, 3 species naturalized), all States except N.T.
Text by J. M. Powell & B. M. Wiecek
Taxon concept:
Taxa not yet included in identification key
Eryngium sp. Little Llangothlin NR (D.M.Bell 349),
Eryngium sp. NSW Tablelands (L.M.Copeland 3898),
Eryngium sp. Spade-leaf (I.Crawford 5473),
Eryngium sp. Spreading-leaves (L.M.Copeland 2904),
Eryngium supinum
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Plants more than 1 m high with broad linear leaves, more than 50 cm long, with slender marginal spines; inflorescence complex, many-branched | Eryngium pandanifolium |
| Plants less than 1 m high with leaves less than 30 cm long, spinose-lobed or pinnatisect with pungent segments; inflorescence more simply branched | 2 |
| 2 | Leaves more or less circular or obovate, more than 50 mm wide; flower heads subglobose; bracts broad-ovate | Eryngium maritimum |
| Leaves oblong or oblanceolate, less than 30 mm wide; flower heads shortly ovoid or cylindrical; bracts narrow-ovate or linear
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Flower heads less than 6 mm diam., few-flowered; floral leaves less than 20 mm long, broad | Eryngium expansum |
| Flower heads more than 6 mm diam., many-flowered; floral leaves more than 20 mm long, narrow
Back to 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Branches prostrate; flower heads basal or at branch nodes | Eryngium vesiculosum |
| Branches erect; flower heads often terminal between opposite axillary branches
Back to 3 | 5 |
| 5 | Flower heads ovoid to globose; bracts spread throughout head, often metallic blue or purplish tinged | Eryngium ovinum |
| Flower heads cylindrical; bracts concentrated at base and apex of head, green
Back to 4 | Eryngium paludosum |
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