Eryngium babadagensis

Baba boğadikeni

Glabrous perennial with a fibrous collar. Flowering stems erect, up to 75 cm tall, the upper part bright blue and the underside glaucous. Basal leaves persistent, numerous, petiolate, coriaceous; lamina obovate, narrowly cuneate at the base, 9-24 × 10-14 cm, palmately veined, 3-4 palmatisect with 5-7 linear segments, segments pungent, parallel veined, 2-3 mm broad, the terminal segment longer than the lateral segments, petiole 9-22 cm, sheathed, often spiny near apex; middle cauline leaves similar, coriaceous, 2- to 4-palmatisect with 5-7 elongate segments, 8-21 × 13-19 cm, segments linear, 0.5-1 mm wide at the apex, terminal segment 6-11 mm long, petioles up to 4 cm long, sheathed, oft en spiny near the apex; upper cauline leaves similar but with a shortly sheathed, spiny-margined petiole; prophyllae trifid, 60-80 × 7-12 mm, acute, spiny margined. Synflorescence paniculate, stout; capitula 7-23, hemispherical, 8-25 mm in diameter; involucral leaves 6-10 per capitulum, subulate, 20-70 × 2-6 mm, unequal, 2-4 × as long as capitulum, linear lanceolate with a broadened midrib and 1-2 pairs of spines; bracts all entire or the outermost tricuspidate, linear, pungent, 9-18 mm; sepals 3.3- 3.8 mm, ovate, with a thickened midrib, acuminate, sometimes mucronate, broadly scarious margined, the calyx epidermal surface tuberculate-striate; petals 3.5- 4.0 mm, white to lilac with a long inflexed lobe; style 7-9 mm long; fruits oblong or ovate-oblong, 9-10 mm long , 3.0-3.8 mm broad, flattened, with long-acuminate to subulate appendages at the margins and the apices, shorter ones on the back; mericarps usually obovate-depressed, 5 rib with oil ducts present, associated with some bundles; mesocarp unlignifi ed; endocarp partially lignified; vallecular and commissural vittae present; endocarp consists of 1 layer of parenchymatous cells; carpophore absent; druze crystals dispersed in the endocarp and mesocarp; the mesocarp surface of E. babadaghensis is aculeate. Fl. 7-8, Fr. 8-10.

Endemic.