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. The species is sparingly naturalized in scattered locations in Canada and the United States.

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

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


 * Subspecies
 * 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