Echinops longifolius A.Rich.

Perennial herb 20–100 cm high; stems erect or occasionally flopping over, arising from a creeping rootstock, white-tomentose, glabrescent, minutely glandular, branching to form a rounded bushy crown.. Leaves spiny, shortly pinnatifid to pinnatisect, linear in outline, 6–30 cm long, 0.5–3 cm wide, base semi-amplexicaul with spiny auricles, with numerous triangular-lanceolate spine-tipped lateral lobes with attenuate apices, thinly white-araneose but glabrescent above, white-or grey-tomentose beneath.. Capitula 17–22 mm long, in globose terminal synflorescences 3–6 cm in diameter, with basal bristles to 15 mm long; phyllaries lanceolate (the outermost spatulate), 10–18.5 mm long, the outer with spinescent acumen, the inner truncate.. Corolla pale blue or white, tube 6–12 mm long, lobes 6–7 mm long.. Achenes 6 mm long, ascending-pilose; pappus of narrow laciniate scales 1–1.5 mm long.. Fig. 10.

It is a tropical plant. It grows in the savannah.