Echinops

Drüsenblättrige globe thistle ( Echinops sphaerocephalus ), inflorescence

The ball thistles ( Echinops ) are a genus of flowering plants from the sunflower family ( Asteraceae).

Features

The ball thistles are perennial herbaceous plants that form as outlasting rhizomes. The stems are upright and angular. The alternate leaves are standing one to two times pinnately divided and part white- woolly - tomentose.

The heads are flowered, have a hermaphrodite tubular corolla and are surrounded by a multi-row cover. Numerous basket form spherical inflorescences second-order diameter of 4 to 8 centimeters have. The cups flower within a head from top to bottom. The corolla is Roehrig, thereby divided almost to the base. The color is steel blue to white, the inflorescence as a whole are usually bluish. The stamens are blue-gray.

The Achänenfrüchte are cylindrical, pentagon and adjacent hairy. The pappus is kurzschuppig.

Dissemination

The Echinops occur in Eurasia and Africa.

System

The Echinops are placed in the tribe and subtribe Cardueae Echinopsidinae within the subfamily Carduoideae. There are around 120 species, of which twelve occur in Europe.

The Central European domestic or occurring species are:

• Banat globe thistle ( Echinops bannaticus Rochel ex Schrad. ) From South-East Europe is cultivated as an ornamental plant and wild rare.
• Glands lots globe thistle ( Echinops exaltatus Schrad. ) Home, since the 19th century wild in Eastern and Southern Europe as an ornamental plant and partially naturalized.
• Ruthenian globe thistle ( Echinops ritro L.) at risk in the Pannonian region in Austria.
• Drüsenblättrige globe thistle ( Echinops sphaerocephalus L.)

Other types:

• Low globe thistle ( Echinops humilis M. Bieb. )
• Echinops spinosissimus

Etymology

The genus name derives from Latin Echinops echinus = hedgehog and Greek opsis = appearance, face down, and refers to the similarity of the heads with a rolled-up hedgehog. The species name " sphaerocephalus " means " ball " (from gr sphaira = Ball, gr kephale = head).

Documents

• Siegmund Seybold (ed.): Schmeil Fitschen - interactive ( CD -Rom ), Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2001/2002, ISBN 3-494-01327-6