Eryngium pectinatum Presl ex DC.

Eryngium pectinatum Presl; DC. Prodr. 4: 96. 1830
Eryngium longis pinum Coult. & Rose; Hemsl. in Hook. Ic. pi. 2766 2. 1903. Eryngium slenolobum Hemsl. in Hook. Ic. pi. 2766 2. 1903.
Stout, caulescent, glabrous perennials, 6-18 dm. high, from a short woody caudex bearing a fascicle of fleshy-fibrous roots, the stems solitary, erect; basal leaves numerous, linear, 2-6 dm. long, 4—12 mm. broad, broadest at the base, attenuate at the apex, spinose-lobed, the lobes spreading or divergent, the longest 1.5-4 cm. long, axillary and often intermediate spines usually well developed, the venation parallel; sheaths as broad as the blades, plane, 2-5 cm. long; cauline leaves like the basal, the lower alternate, ascending, the upper reduced, opposite, deeply spinose-serrate or pinnatifid; inflorescence cymosely branched, the heads large, numerous, pedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads blue, ovoid-oblong, 1.5-2.5 cm. long, 1.5-2 cm. broad; bracts 8-10, rigid, reflexed, linear-lanceolate, 2-5 cm. long, 3-8 mm. broad, pungent, coarsely spinose-serrate toward the base or rarely nearly entire, exceeding the heads; bractlets linear-lanceolate, 4-7 mm. long, curved, pungent, entire, exceeding the fruit; coma wanting; sepals ovate, about 2 mm. long, obtuse or acute, mucronate; petals ovate, about 2 mm. long; styles slender, surpassing the sepals; fruit turbinate, 3-4 mm. long, the scales of the angles forming two incised wings, the calycine scales small, the faces naked.
Type locality: Mexico, Haenke.
Distribution: Coahuila to Mexico and Morelos (Pringle 4359, 10,132).