Chiricahua Mountain Eryngo

Eryngium calaster Standley, Field Mus. Publ. Bot. 22 : 42. 1940.
Slender, caulescent, glabrous perennials, 15-25 cm. high, from a fascicle of fibrous roots, the stems solitary, erect, simple or branched; basal leaves thin, spatulate to oblanceolate, 4—8 cm. long, 1-1.5 cm. broad, long-cuneate at the base, obtuse at the apex, setose-dentate, the venation pinnately reticulate; petioles slender, sheathing at the base, 1-3 cm. long; cauline leaves like the basal, the lower setose-dentate to subpinnatifid, the upper sessile, opposite, incised to palmately parted; inflorescence sparingly cymosely branched, the heads small, few, pedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads blue, globose-ovoid, 4—7 mm. in diameter; bracts 8-14, chartaceous, spreading, oblong to lanceolate, 10-15 mm. long, 3-5 mm. broad, obtuse or abruptly acute, spinose-serrate with 3-6 pairs of delicate spines, green or bluish beneath and silvery above, greatly exceeding the heads; bractlets blue, subulate, 2-4 mm. long, curved, entire, slightly exceeding the fruit; coma wanting; sepals ovate, about 1 mm. long, obtuse, apiculate; petals obovate, 1 mm. long; styles short, slightly exceeding the sepals; fruit globose, 2 mm. in diameter, densely papillate with short conical papillae, the calycine scales narrow and flat.
Type locality: Memelichi, Rio Mayo, Chihuahua, H. S. Gentry 2762. Distribution: Chihuahua to Durango {Pennell 18,284).