Echinops orientalis, Trautv.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 213

3. E. orientalis Trautv. , Echin. Gen. 22 (1833).

Stem 50-80 cm, simple or branched, with glandular, arachnoid indumentum. Leaves broadly oblong in outline, deeply 2-pinnatisect, densely glandular-pubescent above, white-tomentose beneath; segments narrowly triangular to linear-lanceolate, dentate, with stout marginal spines. Inflorescence 4-5-7 cm in diameter, greyish-green. Involucre 25-30 mm; setae exceeding the outer bracts; bracts 18-20, glabrous; outer bracts spathulate, dentate, not more than i as long as the capitulum; middle bracts lanceolate, subulate. Corolla greenish-white. Pappus-setae connate at base. Turkeyin-Europe. *Tu. (Caspian region.)

The European plant belongs to subsp. byzantinus (Form.) Kožuharov, Bot. Jour. Linn. Soc. 71: 41 (1975) ( E. byzantinus Form.). Subsp. orientalis differs in its broadly triangular leafsegments with soft marginal spines, its rather longer, white capitula c. 30 mm and in the involucral setae much exceeding the outer involucral bracts.