Eryngium beecheyanum Hook. & Arn.

Eryngium beecheyanum H. & A. Bot. Beech. Voy. 294. 1838
Eryngium tenue H. & A. Bot. Beech. Voy. 293. 1838. Not E. tenue Lam. 1797. Eryngium cryptanthum Hemsl. in Hook. Ic. pi. 2509. 1897. Eryngium tenuissimum Hemsl. in Hook. Ic. pi. 2580. 1899. Eryngium Seleri H. Wolff, Repert. Sp. Nov. 7: 275. 1909.
Slender, caulescent, divaricately branching, glabrous biennials, 1.5-6 dm. high, from a fascicle of fibrous roots; basal leaves numerous, rosulate, oblanceolate, 3-8 cm. long, 8-15 mm. broad, long-cuneate at the base, obtuse at the apex, setose-serrate to subpinnatifid, the venation pinnately reticulate; petioles short or obsolete, winged and sheathing at the base, to 1 cm. long, much shorter than the blades; lower cauline leaves like the basal, setose-serrate or shallowly incised to pinnatifid, the upper palmately parted, sessile, the uppermost opposite; inflorescence cymosely divaricate, the heads small, numerous, pedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads blue or occasionally white, ovoid-cylindric, 6-10 mm. long, 5-6 mm. broad; bracts 8-12, chartaceous, spreading, linear-lanceolate, S— 1 5 mm. long, 2-3 mm. broad, pungent, green or bluish beneath and yellowish-white above, with 1-3 short lateral spines or entire, exceeding or occasionally only equaling the heads; bractlets subulate, 3-4 mm. long, entire, curved, exceeding the fruit; coma of 1-3 usually entire bractlets, 2-6 mm. long, or occasionally obsolete; sepals ovate, about 1 mm. long, obtuse, apiculate; petals obovate, about 1 mm. long; styles rather short, slightly exceeding the sepals; fruit globose, 1-2 mm. long, densely papillate on the angles and surfaces.
Type locality: "Talisco [Jalisco], Sierra Madre, Mexico," Lay b° Collie.
Distribution: Sonora and Chihuahua to Mexico and Michoacan (Hinton 2194, Pringle 4120, 13,526).