Eryngium deppeanum Cham. & Schltdl.

Eryngium deppeanum Schlecht. & Cham. Linnaea 5: 207. 1830
Eryngium Painteri Hemsl. & Rose; Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 8: 333. 1905. Eryngium Painteri var. gigantophyllum II. Wolff, Repert. Sp. Nov. 8: 307. 1910. Eryngium Painteri var. lypicum H. Wolff in Engler, Pflanzenreich 61 (4 228 ): 222. 1913.
Rather stout, caulescent, glabrous perennials, 6-15 dm. high, from a short tuberous caudex bearing a fascicle of fleshy-fibrous roots, the stems solitary, erect, branching; basal leaves numerous, rosulate, linear-lanceolate, 8-40 cm. long, 1-2 cm. broad, slightly narrowed at the base, attenuate at the apex, spinose-lobed, the lobes short, stout, ascending or divaricate, 5-12 mm. long, often replaced by simple spines toward the base, short axillary spines occasionally present, the venation parallel, but some reticulations usually evident toward the margins; sheaths plane, nearly as broad as the blades, 1-3 cm. long; cauline leaves like the basal, large, sessile, lanceolate, alternate and deeply spinose-serrate, the upper opposite or whorled, broad and elongate, deeply spinose-serrate or spinose-lobed; inflorescence cymosely branched, the lower branches alternate, the upper whorled, the heads large, numerous, pedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads blue, ovoid, 1-2 cm. long, 1-1.5 cm. broad; bracts 8-12, rigid, spreading or reflexed, linear or linear-lanceolate, 1-3 cm. long, 2-4 mm. broad, pungent, entire or with an occasional tooth, about equaling the heads; bractlets linear-lanceolate, 3-8 mm. long, pungent, somewhat dilated at the base, entire, exceeding the fruit; coma wanting; sepals ovate, 1-2 mm. long, obtuse, apiculate; petals obovate, 1-2 mm. long; styles slender, exceeding the sepals; fruit ovoid, 2-5 mm. long, the angles densely covered with short, flattened, acute, lanceolate scales, the faces naked.
Type locality: "Serro Colorado," Deppe.
Distribution: Hidalgo to Vera Cruz and Oaxaca (Pringle 603S, 6939).