Field Eryngo

Eryngium campestre L. Sp. PI. 233. 1753
Stout and fleshy, glabrous and often glaucescent perennials, 2-5 dm. high, from a stout woody, fibrous-covered base bearing fleshy roots, the stems erect, leafy, freely branching above with elongate branches; basal leaves rigid, deltoid, 10-25 cm. in diameter, pinnately, ternately, or ternate-pinnately divided, the divisions broadly decurrent on the rachis, spinosedentate or spinose-serrate, the venation reticulate; petioles stout, sheathing at the base, 5-25 cm. long; cauline leaves similar but usually sessile, ternate and broadly sheathing; inflorescence cymose, the heads numerous, pedunculate, rather large, the flowers numerous; heads ovoid to subglobose, 1-1.5 cm. in diameter; bracts 5-7, linear or linear-lanceolate, 2-5 cm. long, pungent, entire or spinose-dentate, greatly exceeding the heads; bractlets subulate, 1 cm. long, entire, exceeding the fruit; coma wanting; sepals lanceolate, 2 mm. long, mucronate; petals oblong, 2-2.5 mm. long; styles shorter than the sepals; fruit ovoid, 2-2.5 mm. long, slightly compressed laterally and densely covered with linear to lanceolate, white, lacerate scales 1-2 mm. long.
Type locality: "In Germaniae, Galliae, Hispaniae, Italiae incultis," collector unknown. Distribution: Introduced on the coasts of New Jersey, Maryland, and Alabama.