Eryngium gramineum Delar.

Eryngium pringlei Hemsl. & Rose; Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat Herb. 8:333. 1905.
Very slender, caulescent perennials, 2-6 dm. high, from a short rootstock bearing fleshyfibrous roots, the stems solitary or few, erect, branching; basal leaves numerous, linear-lanceolate to linear, 5-30 cm. long, 3-7 mm. broad, slightly narrowed toward the base, pungentacute at the apex, setose-ciliate with slender bristles toward the base, the venation parallel; sheaths nearly as broad as the blades, up to 3 cm. long; cauline leaves few, like the basal, sessile, the lower alternate, the upper reduced, opposite; inflorescence cymose, the heads small, numerous, pedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads globose-ovoid, 5-8 mm. in diameter; bracts 5-6, rigid, spreading, ovate-lanceolate, 2-5 mm. long, pungent-acuminate, entire, puberulent on the back, much shorter than the heads; bractlets like the bracts in size and shape, puberulent on the back, about equaling the fruit; coma wanting; sepals broadly ovate, 1-1.5 mm. long, obtuse, scarious-margined, apiculate, puberulent on the back; petals broadly ovate, about 1.5 mm. long; styles slender, longer than the sepals; fruit subglobose, about 3 mm. in diameter, the calycine scales and those of the angles flattened, lanceolate, the faces papillate.
Type locality: In alkaline meadows, Hacienda de Angostura, San Luis Potosi. Pringle 3759. Distribution: Coahuila to Nayarit and San Luis Potosi {Palmer 63, Pennell 1S,045).

Eryngium gramineum Delar. f. Eryng. 60. 1808
Eryngium puberulenlum Hemsl. & Rose; Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 8: 334. 1905.
Slender, caulescent perennials, 0.6-1 m. high, from a short, cylindrical, woody horizontal or oblique rootstock bearing a fascicle of fleshy-fibrous roots, the stems solitary, erect; basal leaves numerous, narrowly linear, 2-4 (or 6) dm. long, 5-15 mm. broad, broadest at the base and attenuate at the apex, densely spinose-ciliate with weak ascending spines, the longest 2-7 mm. long, or the spines nearly obsolete, axillary spines absent, the venation parallel; sheaths as broad as the blades, vaginate, 2-6 cm. long; cauline leaves few, like the basal but reduced, ascending, the lower alternate, the uppermost reduced and opposite; inflorescence cymose, the heads rather large, numerous to few, pedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads ovoid, 10-15 mm. long, 8-12 mm. broad; bracts 6-10, linear-lanceolate, 3-8 (or 15) mm. long, 1-2 mm. broad, acute or acuminate, pungent, entire, much shorter than the heads; bractlets lanceolate-triangular to ovate, 3-5 mm. long, pungent, dilated at the base, densely puberulent on the back or occasionally glabrate, slightly exceeding the fruit; coma wanting; sepals oval to oblong-lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm. long, obtuse, mucronulate; petals obovate, about 1 mm. long; styles slender, exceeding the sepals; fruit turbinate, 2-3 mm. long, the calycine scales and those of the angles lanceolate, 0.5 mm. long, flat, tawny or whitish, those of the faces greatly reduced, vesiculose or abortive.
Type locality: "Nova Hispania," Humboldt & Bonpland.
Distribution: Nuevo Leon to Sonora, south to Sinaloa {Pringle 10,078, 11,461).