Echinops sphaerocephalusL.

great globethistle

WFO wfo-0000076972 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Echinops sphaerocephalus, photographed by Pavel Kacl
fig. a Pavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-05 / obs. 203599074
Echinops sphaerocephalus, photographed by Pavel Komkov
fig. b Pavel Komkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196487560
Echinops sphaerocephalus, photographed by Pavel Kacl
fig. c Pavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194284595
Echinops sphaerocephalus, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. d Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 193972779
Echinops sphaerocephalus, photographed by Pavel Kacl
fig. e Pavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175496684
Echinops sphaerocephalus, photographed by Aleksei Baushev
fig. f Aleksei Baushev, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175279225
Echinops sphaerocephalus, photographed by nina_nesterova
fig. g nina_nesterova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159923142
Echinops sphaerocephalus, photographed by Силаева Татьяна Борисовна
fig. h Силаева Татьяна Борисовна, CC0 1.0 / obs. 157881194

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 31 botanical countries

Regions where Echinops sphaerocephalus is native: Altay, Iran, Kazakhstan, Krasnoyarsk, North Caucasus, Saudi Arabia, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AltayIranKazakhstanKrasnoyarskNorth CaucasusSaudi ArabiaTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest SiberiaXinjiangAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFranceGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.PolandRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine
Native distribution of Echinops sphaerocephalus, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
France FRA
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Iran IRN
Kazakhstan KAZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
North Caucasus NCS
Saudi Arabia SAU
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 394 in flower of 549 examined

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Echinops sphaerocephalus observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 394 of 549 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 3 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 19 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Echinops albidus Boiss. & Spruner
  • Echinops altaicus hort. ex DC.
  • Echinops cirsiifolius (K.Koch) Grossh.
  • Echinops cirsiifolius K.Koch
  • Echinops dagestanicus Iljin
  • Echinops erevanensis Mulk.
  • Echinops horridus Link
  • Echinops macedonicus Formánek
  • Echinops major St.-Lag.
  • Echinops maximus Siev. ex Pall.
  • Echinops maximus Siev.
  • Echinops multiflorus Lam.
  • Echinops paniculatus J.Jacq.
  • Echinops rochelianus var. cirsiifolius K.Koch
  • Echinops sphaerocephalus var. koelzii (Rech.f.) Parsa
  • Echinops sphaerocephalus var. sphaerocephalus
  • Echinops taygeteus Boiss. & Heldr.
  • Echinops villosus hort. ex DC.
  • Echinops viscosus Rchb.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.