In article , Bart Bailey
writes
On Thu, 26 Jun 2003 17:25:10 +0100, Kay Easton
wrote:

Wouldn't happen to be a type of Thistle, would it?
http://www.mccullagh.org/db7/d30-30/thistle.jpg

No - it is definitely an Eryngium.

And your picture wasn't a thistle either ;-)
It was a teasel - different family altogether - Dipsacaceae, as opposed
to carrot family for sea holly and daisy family for thistle.

It's a pic I had seen before from a digicam gallery reference,
http://www.mccullagh.org/image/d30-30/
and googled it up again, but it looks like the dead dried winter remains
of thistle I've seen in fields. Maybe your Eryngiums and our thistles
are like our respective yellow hammer birds? g

I guess it's another demonstration of why we need the latin names!

Your pic is Dipsacus lacianatum or D fullonem - the latter was used in
the woollen trade for brushing out the nap on cloth. A whole lot of
teasel heads were put in a frame which was dragged across the cloth. It
was a long time before they managed to manufacture a brush which did the
job as well as the natural product.

The teasel is related to the scabious - Knautia, and when it flowers,
the whole head is a purple mass of flowers.

The round bit on a thistle is basically the calyx, and the flowers are
in a tuft at the top:

www.southernskyphoto.com/ macro/gallery_3.htm

The Eryngium looks superficially like the teasel in that the whole head
is made up of flowers, but if you look closely they are in an umbel,
which puts them in Umbellifereae (carrot family) - the nearest is
probably Astrantia.
--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm