Echinops ritro

Echinops ritro, the southern globe thistle, 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 and central Asia east to Mongolia.^[1][2] The species is sparingly naturalised in scattered locations in Canada and the United States.^[3][4]

Echinops ritro
Echinops ritro subsp. ritro in Torà, Segarra-Catalunya, Spain
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

Description

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 2.5–4.5 cm in diameter, in late summer.^[5]

Taxonomy

Five subspecies are accepted by the Plants of the World Online database:^[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. thracicus (Velen.) Kožuharov

Additionally, one variety is accepted, but without specification as to which subspecies it belongs to:^[1]

• Echinops ritro var. elbursensis (Rech.f.) Parsa

Cultivation

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

Plants previously reported as naturalised in Great Britain are mostly or all the related species Echinops bannaticus.^[8]