Coyote Thistle

Eryngium vaseyi Coult. & Rose, Bot. Gaz. 13: 142. 1888
Rather stout, caulescent, glabrous perennials, 1.5-4 (or 6) dm. high, from a fascicle of woody-fibrous roots, the stems erect or ascending, branching above; basal leaves oblonglanceolate to ovate, 9-25 cm. long, 2-8 cm. broad, deeply pinnatifid, the segments unequal, narrow or broad, usually remote, spinulose-lobed or again pinnatifid; petioles very short, dilated, 1-4 cm. long; cauline leaves like the basal, the upper sessile, opposite; inflorescence corymbose, the heads rather small, numerous, short-pedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads subglobose, 5-10 mm. in diameter; bracts about 8, rigid, spreading, linear-subulate, 5-15 (or 25) mm. long, densely spinose with 1-5 pairs of lateral, but no dorsal spines, shorter than to greatly exceeding the heads; bractlets like the bracts, the terminal longest, 5-15 mm. long, exceeding the fruit, usually with 1-3 pairs of lateral spines or rarely entire and with a short and broad scarious wing at the base which enfolds the fruit; coma wanting; sepals lanceolate to ovate, 1-3 mm. long, acute or obtuse, mucronate, scarious-margined, entire or occasionally somewhat spinose; petals oblong, 1-1.5 mm. long; styles shorter or longer than the sepals; fruit ovoid, 2-3 mm. long, densely covered with appressed, white, subequal, lanceolate scales 0.5-1 mm. long, or the calycine scales slightly the longest. Type locality: San Antonio River, Monterey County, California, Vasey 222. Distribution: Vernal pools; upper Salinas and San Joaquin valleys, interior central California