Echinops ritro

Echinops ritro, the southern globethistle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to southern and eastern Europe (from Spain east to Turkey, Ukraine, and Belarus), and western Asia.^[2] The species is sparingly naturalized in scattered locations in Canada and the United States.^[3][4]

Echinops ritro
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Asteraceae
Genus:	Echinops
Species:	E. ritro
Binomial name
Echinops ritro L. 1753 not Georgi 1775
Synonyms[1]
Synonymy Echinops tauricus Willd. ex Ledeb. Echinops tenuifolius Fisch. ex Schkuhr Echinops meyeri (DC.) Iljin, syn of subsp. meyeri Echinops ruthenicus M.Bieb., syn of subsp. ruthenicus Echinops virgatus Lam., syn of subsp. ruthenicus Echinops sartorianus Boiss. & Heldr., syn of subsp. sartorianus Echinops siculus Strobl, syn of subsp. siculus Echinops thracicus Velen., syn of subsp. thracicus

Various butterflies and burnet moths on a flower of Echinops ritro subsp. ruthenicus, in the Juliana Alpine Botanical Garden, Trenta, Bovec, Slovenia

It is a compact, bushy herbaceous perennial thistle, growing to 60 cm (24 in) tall, with broad prickly leaves and bearing globes of steel-blue flowers 2.5 cm - 4.5 cm in diameter, in late summer.^[5]

Echinops ritro ^[6] and the subspecies E. ritro subsp. ruthenicus^[7] have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Subspecies^[1]

• Echinops ritro subsp. meyeri (DC.) Kožuharov
• Echinops ritro subsp. ritro
• Echinops ritro subsp. ruthenicus (M.Bieb.) Nyman
• Echinops ritro subsp. sartorianus (Boiss. & Heldr.) Kožuharov
• Echinops ritro subsp. siculus (Strobl) Greuter
• Echinops ritro subsp. thracicus (Velen.) Kožuharov