California Eryngo

Eryngium aristulatum exhibits a generally ascending or erect form and achieves a height of ten to ninety centimeters. The plant architecture consists of a form of loose branching from the main stem. Flowers manifest oblanceolate petals that are usually white, but occasionally are purple. The oblong to ovate fruits are approximately 1.5 to 2.5 millimeters across.

Eryngium aristulatum Jepson, Erythea 1: 62. 1893
Eryngium elongatum Coult. & Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 7: 53. 1900. Not E. elongatum Pohl;
Urban, 1879. Eryngium Jepsoni Coult. & Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 7: 54. 1900. Eryngium oblanceolatum Coult. & Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 7: 56. 1900. Eryngium californuum Jepson, Fl. W. Middle Calif. 343. 1901. Eryngium Vaseyi var. oblanceolatum Jepson, Madrono 1: 107. 1923. Eryngium laxibracleum Mathias, Brittonia 2: 245. 1936.
Stout or slender, caulescent, glabrous perennials, 1-8 dm. high, from a fascicle of woodyfibrous roots, the stems several or few, branching freely from the base or above, the branches erect to prostrate; basal leaves numerous, oblanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 3.5-25 cm. long, 5-25 mm. broad, acuminate at the apex, finely spinulose-serrate to incised or lobed, especially in the submerged leaves, the venation reticulate, or the blades obsolete; petioles slender, elongate, septate, entire or spinulose, 5-25 cm. long; cauline leaves like the basal, but sessile and reduced above; inflorescence cymose, the heads numerous to few, large or small, pedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads globose, 5-12 mm. in diameter, the distal often much smaller than those below; bracts rigid, spreading, linear or linear-lanceolate, 5-25 mm. long (varying with the size of the heads), spinose on the margins and occasionally dorsally, somewhat scariouswinged at the base, equaling to greatly exceeding the heads; bractlets like the bracts, 5-15 mm. long, exceeding the fruit, with 1-3 pairs of lateral and occasionally a few short dorsal spines, or spineless, broadly scarious-winged at the base and enfolding the fruit, the wing usually ending in two free, acute, entire or toothed, ascending tips and often spinose in the sinuses; coma wanting; sepals lanceolate, 1.5-3.5 mm. long, acute or obtuse, cuspidate, entire or nearly so; petals oblanceolate, 1.5 mm. long; styles usually exceeding the sepals; fruit ovoid, 1.5-2.5 mm. long, densely covered with appressed, lanceolate-acuminate scales, the calycine up to 1 mm. long, those below decreasing rapidly in size.
Type locality: In the dry bed of a winter lake, mountains south of Uncle Sam Mountain, Lake County, California, Jepson 14,281.
Distribution: Vernal pools and salt marshes; Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada foothills of northern California (Abrams 5747 , Tracy 3777).

Eryngium aristulatum, known by the common names California eryngo and Jepson's button celery, is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae.