Eryngium crassisquamosum Hemsl.

Eryngium crassisquamosum Hemsl. in Hook. Ic. pi. 2765. 1903
Eryngium peclinatum sensu Seem. Bot. Voy. Herald 294. 1856. Not E. peclinatum Presl, 1837.
Stout, caulescent, glabrous perennials, 1-2 m. high, from a short vertical tuberous rootstock bearing a fascicle of fleshy-fibrous roots, the stems solitary, erect; basal leaves numerous, linear, 3-8 dm. long, 1-2 cm. broad, coarsely spinose-lobed, the lobes spreading or divaricate, the longest spines 15-25 (or 60) mm. long, axillary spines present, the venation parallel; sheaths broader than the blades, vaginate, 4-12 cm. long; cauline leaves like the basal, the lower alternate, elongate, ascending, densely spinose at the base, the upper greatly reduced, opposite; inflorescence divaricately cymose, the heads large, numerous, pedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads purple, ovoid-oblong, 1.5-2.2 cm. long, 1-1.3 cm. broad; bracts 8-12, rigid, spreading or reflexed, lanceolate to linear, 1-2 cm. long or occasionally much shorter, pungent, entire or fewtoothed, exceeding or shorter than the heads; bractlets lanceolate, 4-6 mm. long, pungent, entire, exceeding the fruit; coma wanting; sepals ovate, 1.5-2 mm. long, obtuse, apiculate; petals oval, about 1.5 mm. long; styles slender, exceeding the sepals; fruit turbinate, 2-3 ram. long, the calycine and lateral scales lanceolate, flat, tawny, acute, up to 1 mm. long, the latter forming incised wings, the dorsal reduced downwards or obsolete.
Typb locality: Sierra Madre, Mexico, Seeman 21.16.
Distribution: Nuevo Le6n to Durango and Nayarit (Ferris 5976, Rose 2128).