9442.000 Echinops L.

Perennial spiny herbs. Leaves alternate, sessile, often dissected; leaves near the base of the stem larger and wider than those nearer the synflorescences. Capitula with a single floret; many capitula packed into dense synflorescences, these terminal and globose or ellipsoid, subtended by few bracts; capitula with or without basal setae; phyllaries 3–5-seriate, the outer free, the inner connate at the base. Corolla white, red or blue, tube cylindric with campanulate distal part, lobes long and linear. Fruit achenes ascending-pilose; pappus of short scales.

Worldwide: c. 120 species in Europe, the Mediterranean region, C Asia and on tropical African mountains

Zimbabwe: 1 cultivated taxon.