FoI
Blue Globe Thistle
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Blue Globe Thistle
ative Photo: Tabish
Common name: Blue Globe Thistle • Hindi: Kandara, कंटेला Kantela • Ladakhi: ཨཀཟེམ Aczema
Botanical name: Echinops cornigerus    Family: Asteraceae (Sunflower family)
Synonyms: Echinops coriarius, Echinops polygraphus

Blue Globe Thistle is a distinctly noticeable and rather handsome plant that grows in the Himalayas. They can be seen blooming just after the rains until the beginning of autumn. The flower heads are almost perfect spheres and made up of small closely packed blue flowers. In between these closely packed flowers sharp spines jut out. They are a little longer than the flowers. Before the flower blooms, it looks like a very spiny ball. The silvery-green leaves are pinnately divided into many segments. The edges of the leaves have sharp spines all along. The leaves are white-cottony beneath. Blue Globe Thistle is found in the Himalayas, from Afghanistan to C. Nepal, at altitudes of 2400-3500 m. It is common in Ladakh. Flowering: July-September.

Identification credit: Tabish Photographed in Leh, Ladakh.
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