Eryngium guatemalense Hemsl.

Eryngium guatemalense Hemsl. in Hook. Ic. pi. 2766 2. 1903
Eryngium pectinatum sensu Donn. Smith, Enum. PI. Guat. 2: 29. 1891. Not E. pectinatum Presl, 1830.
Stout, caulescent, glabrous perennials, 1-1.5 m. high, from a short horizontal woody rootstock bearing a fascicle of fibrous roots, the stems solitary, erect, branching; basal leaves numerous, rosulate, linear-lanceolate, 1-6 dm. long, 8-22 mm. broad, slightly narrowed at the base, acuminate at the apex, spinose-serrate, the lobes divaricate or spreading, the longest 1-2.5 cm. long, axillary spines often present, the venation parallel; sheaths nearly as broad as the blades, plane (?), 1-5 cm. long; cauline leaves like the basal, the lower alternate, ascending, the upper broad and elongated, spreading or recurved, opposite or occasionally whorled; inflorescence diffusely cymosely branched, the heads large, numerous, pedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads blue or purple, hemispheric, 1-2 cm. in diameter; bracts rigid, spreading to ascending, linear to linear-lanceolate, 1-4 cm. long, 2-6 mm. broad, often unequal, pungent, entire or with a few reduced spines, exceeding the heads; bractlets subulate-linear, 4-5 mm. long, mucronate, entire, exceeding the fruit; coma wanting; sepals ovate, 1.5-2 mm. long, obtuse, apiculate; petals oblong to oval, about 1.5 mm. long; styles slender, exceeding the sepals; fruit ovoid, 3-4 mm. long, the scales of the angles forming two wings, the faces naked.
Type locality: Mountains near Hacienda de Chaucol, Guatemala, E. W. Nelson 3654. Distribution: Chiapas to Guatemala (Matilda 2323, J. D. Smith 2197).