Eryngium carlinae Delar.

Eryngium carlinae Delar. f. Eryng. 53. 1808
Eryngium radiatum Willd.; Spreng. Syst. 1: 877, as syn. 1825. Eryngium affine H. Wolff, Repert. Sp. Nov. 7: 345. 1909.
Low, short-caulescent or acaulescent, glabrous perennials, 5-25 cm. high or long, from a slender, often branched taproot, the stems decumbent to erect, solitary to several; basal leaves numerous, rosulate, oblanceolate, 3-8 cm. long, 5-18 mm. broad, long-cuneate at the base, obtuse at the apex, coarsely spinulose-serrate and often incised or lobed with divaricate teeth or lobes, the venation pinnately reticulate; petioles broadly winged, 0.5-2 cm. long, much shorter than the blades; cauline leaves few, like the basal, the upper sessile, deeply incised and often parted toward the base; inflorescence trifurcate or sparingly cymosely divaricate, the heads small, pedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads violet-blue, ovoid, 7-10 mm. long, 5-7 mm. broad; bracts 8-10, chartaceous, spreading-ascending, oblanceolate to ovate, 8-20 mm. long, 2-6 mm. broad, acute, more or less spinose-serrate toward the apex, green or blue beneath and white above, usually exceeding the heads; bractlets subulate, 2-3 mm. long, curved, entire, slightly exceeding the fruit; coma of 1-3 nearly entire bractlets, 2-5 mm. long, or occasionally obsolete; sepals ovate, 1.5-2 mm. long, obtuse, mucronate; petals spatulate, about 1 mm. long; styles shorter than the sepals; fruit ovoid, 1.5-2 mm. long, the angles densely covered with short flattened scales, the faces with conical papillae.
Type locality: "Nova Hispania," collector unknown.
Distribution: Durango and Hidalgo to Guatemala and Costa Rica (Pennell 18,532, Pringle 6916).