It usually grows about a foot high and is widely branched at the top. The leaves are finely divided with numerous thread-like divisions. The flowers are one-fourth inch broad and have five notched petals which are broader than long. The fruits have two ball-shaped divisions, each about one-eighth inch in diameter and faintly ridged.
FALSE PURPLE THISTLE. ERYNGO
False Purple Thistle. Eryngo (Eryngium leavenworthii) is not a true thistle, but it is popularly known as one. The ancient Greeks had the same idea, for the name “Eryngium” is their name for a kind of thistle. Correctly speaking it is a purple carrot, as it belongs to a large group of the carrot family, some of which are widely cultivated abroad for their striking purple foliage. The flowers are clustered in an oblong head, quite different from the dainty flower clusters of Queen Anne’s lace. Other common names of this group include sea-holly, rattlesnake master, and button snake-root, the two latter from their accredited property of curing snake-bites. Candelabrum plant is a name sometimes given which is very appropriate because of its branching habit of growth.
The plants grow one to three feet high, usually in dense masses along roadsides and fields and on prairies from Central Texas to Kansas. In August the gray-green foliage of the plants is quite conspicuous against darker greens, but it gradually takes on a royal purple hue. Few plants can rival it for beauty in late August and September. The dense heads of purple flowers with their long, slender dark-blue stamens add to the vividness. The dried plants are often kept for winter decoration, but the purple does not remain so intense.
The stems are branched at the top, the flower heads growing on short stalks in the forks of the branches. The deeply lobed leaves clasp the stem, the leaf segments bearing many spiny-teeth. A tuft of small, rigid, spiny leaves grows out of the top of the flower head.
Several eryngoes are found in the state. The yucca-leaved eryngo (Eryngium aquaticum) grows in the summer in sandy areas or low grounds from Texas to Minnesota and Connecticut. It bears little resemblance in habit of growth or coloring to the purple thistle. Most of the long leaves are clustered at the base, and a stout flower stalk bears at the top several head-like clusters of white flowers.
The carrot family is a large group of plants, most of which have lacy, fern-like leaves and dainty umbrella-clusters of small flowers and fruit which separates into two ribbed 1-seeded divisions. The plants are usually rich in oil tubes, and some contain deadly poisons.
BEGGAR’S TICKS