Echinops borae

Oğul topuzu

Perennial herbs. Stems solitary or several, sturdy, up to 1.7 m, branched above, several-headed, green, densely stipitate-glandular. Leaves lanceolate to elliptic outline, 2–3 pinnatisect, green with glandular-setose above, white lanate below with stipitate glands on veins, spines numerous variable in size. Basal leaves petiolate up to 45 x 15 cm, cauline amplexicaule or simple. Heads 6–8 cm diameter, borne at ends of stems and branches, greenish to bluish. Capitula up to 35 mm long, brush equal to longer than outer phyllaries, 9–15 mm long; phyllaries 15–20; outer 9–14 mm, densely glandular spathulate-deltoid, margins serrate, median 25–30 mm, without long spines, lanceolate, margins serrate, innermost connate to about 1/2 their length. Corollas pale blue or whitish; tube 13–14 mm long, glandular, lobes 10–12 mm; anther bases tailed and fimbriate. Achenes 12–15 mm, densely covered with yellow twin-hairs; pappus bristles 1.5–2 mm long, connate at basal half. Flowers and fruits between July and September.

Echinops borae is known only from Erdemli near the sea level. It grows on dry calcareous rocky slopes near the seashore among mostly scrubby plant species between 1–20 m.

Endemic.