Arizona Eryngo

Eryngium sparganophyllum Hemsl. in Hook. Ic. pi. 2508. 1897
Eryngium longifolium sensu A. Gray, PI. Wright 2: 65. 1853. Not E. longifolium Cav. 1793.
Rather slender, caulescent, glabrous perennials, 4—12 dm. high, from a short tuberous rootstock bearing a fascicle of fleshy-fibrous roots, the stems solitary to several, erect; basal leaves numerous, linear to linear-lanceolate, 1-9 dm. long, 5-15 mm. broad, broadest at the base, attenuate at the apex, entire or obsoletely spinulose-dentate with teeth 2 mm. long or less, axillary spines absent, the venation parallel; sheaths broader than the blades, vaginate or plane, 2-10 cm. long; cauline leaves few, like the basal but reduced and sessile, the lower alternate, ascending, the upper opposite; inflorescence divaricately cymose, or trifurcate, or rarely simple, the heads rather large, numerous to few or solitary, pedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads blue, ovoid or ovoid-oblong, 15-25 mm. long, 10-15 mm. broad, rounded at the base; bracts 8-12, herbaceous, loosely spreading to reflexed, linear, 5-15 mm. long, pungent, entire, much shorter than the heads; bractlets lanceolate, 5 mm. long, curved, pungent, entire, slightly exceeding the fruit; coma wanting; sepals ovate, 1.5-2 mm. long, obtuse, apiculate; petals oblong, about 2 mm. long; styles slender, exceeding the sepals; fruit ovoid, 3-4 mm. long, the calycine scales and those of the angles lanceolate, up to 1 mm. long, those of the surfaces smaller and papillose.
Type locality: Los Playos Springs, near the Sierra de Los Animos, New Mexico, C. Wright 1103.
Distribution: New Mexico to Jalisco (Palmer 294, Pennell 18,296).