Leavenworth's Eryngo

Leavenworth’s eryngo is a prickly, 20-40 in. annual with a leafy stem, broadly branched in the upper portion. Almost the entire plant has some shade of purple. Flowers are minute, purple, and mingled with small, spiny bracts in an elongated, terminal, head-like cluster. These are subtended by conspicuous spiny-tipped bracts. The leaves are deeply lobed, each segment edged and tipped with stiff spines. A tuft of small, rigid, spiny leaves grows out of the top of the flower head.