Compilation
Echinops claessensii

Perennial herb, 0.9–2.4 m high, erect, spiny; stems from a woody base, usually unbranched, rather woody, leafy throughout, ridged, densely glandular, white-tomentose but glabrescent. Leaves spiny, (ob-)ovate or elliptic in outline, 5–26 cm long, 3–19 cm wide, pinnatifid with 3–4 pairs of broadly triangular spine-tipped lobes (fewer in more distal leaves) and a similar terminal lobe, base cordate-emarginate or semi-amplexicaul, margins spiny (also some spines submarginally on the adaxial surface), green, glandular and initially araneose-tomentose but glabrescent above, densely glandular and white-grey-tomentose beneath, rarely glabrescent. Capitula 37–40 mm long, in dense globose synflorescences 3.5–10 cm in diameter; phyllaries spatulate to lanceolate, 1.2–3.4 cm long, glabrous but the median pectinate. Corolla red or crimson, tube 3–8 mm long, lobes linear, 18–29 mm long, anthers dull red, style red, arms linear, obtuse, shortly hairy in upper third. Achenes obconic, ± 7.5 mm long, 5-ribbed, densely ascending-pilose; pappus of numerous basally united, fringed scales 1.5–2.5 mm long.