Globe thistle is a clump forming herbaceous perennial with coarse, prickly leaves and rigid, usually branched, flowering stems 0.6 to 0.9 m tall. The leaves are stiff and deeply dissected into spine tipped lobes, patterned with cobweb like markings on top, and densely white woolly beneath.
The spherical flower heads are 2.5 to 5.1 cm in diameter, silvery blue at first and maturing to bright blue. Within the flower head, the tiny tubular flowers are each surrounded by bristly silverish bracts that extend beyond the actual flowers, giving the head a spiny texture. The flower stems branch 2 to 6 times and each branch bears a single flower head.
Globe thistle is native to Western Asia and Eastern Europe from Russia to Southern France and Spain.
For today’s image a spherical flower head was captured from short distance from the side.