Eryngium palmeri Hemsl.

Eryngium palmeri Hemsl. in Hook. Ic. pi. 2765 2. 1903
Stout, caulescent, glabrous perennials, 8-18 dm. high, from a short tuberous rootstock bearing a fascicle of fleshy-fibrous roots, the stems solitary, erect, branching; basal leaves distichous, numerous, linear, 3-7 dm. long, 6-12 mm. broad, attenuate at the apex, spinoseserrate with stout spreading lobes or teeth, the longest 10-32 mm. long, axillary spines usually present, the venation parallel; sheaths broader than the blades, vaginate, 4-10 cm. long; cauline leaves few, like the basal, the lower alternate, elongate, ascending, the upper spreading, opposite, all deeply spinose-serrate; inflorescence cymosely branched, the heads large, numerous, pedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads hemispheric, 1.5-2 cm. in diameter; bracts 6-8, rigid, spreading, 2.5-5 cm. long, entire or with 1-2 reduced spines, greatly exceeding the heads; bractlets linear-lanceolate, 8-10 mm. long, curved, pungent, entire, exceeding the fruit; coma wanting; sepals ovate, 3 mm. long, acute, mucronate, puberulent on the back; petals obovate, about 2.5 mm. long; styles slender, exceeding the sepals; fruit turbinate, 3-4 mm. long, the scales forming two incised lateral wings, the calycine scales few, narrow, the surfaces naked.
Type locality: Rio Blanco, Mexico, Palmer 6S1. Distribution: Jalisco (Pringle 7623, 10,131).