Lappula squarrosa(Retz.) Dumort.

European stickseed

WFO wfo-0000361500 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Lappula squarrosa, photographed by Dmitrii Mostovoi
fig. a Dmitrii Mostovoi, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205863005

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
01156430
Filed as
Lappula squarrosa (Retz.) Dumort.
Det. by
S.J. Rolfsmeier 2012-01-01
Collected
E. J. Neese 1983-09-07
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 55 botanical countries

Regions where Lappula squarrosa is native: Morocco, Afghanistan, Altay, Amur, Buryatiya, China North-Central, Chita, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Irkutsk, Kamchatka, Kazakhstan, Khabarovsk, Kirgizstan, Korea, Krasnoyarsk, Lebanon-Syria, Magadan, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Primorye, Qinghai, Sakhalin, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Tuva, Uzbekistan, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Yakutiya, West Himalaya, Albania, Austria, Baleares, Baltic States, Belarus, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, Northwest European Russia, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine MoroccoAfghanistanAltayAmurBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChitaInner MongoliaIranIrkutskKamchatkaKazakhstanKhabarovskKirgizstanKrasnoyarskLebanon-SyriaMagadanMongoliaNorth CaucasusPrimoryeQinghaiSakhalinTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTuvaUzbekistanWest SiberiaXinjiangYakutiyaWest HimalayaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFranceGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNorthwest European RussiaNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine KoreaBaleares
Native distribution of Lappula squarrosa, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Altay ALT
Amur AMU
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
Chita CTA
Inner Mongolia CHI
Iran IRN
Irkutsk IRK
Kamchatka KAM
Kazakhstan KAZ
Khabarovsk KHA
Kirgizstan KGZ
Korea KOR
Krasnoyarsk KRA
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Magadan MAG
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Primorye PRM
Qinghai CHQ
Sakhalin SAK
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Tuva TVA
Uzbekistan UZB
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Yakutiya YAK
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baleares BAL
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
Northwest European Russia RUW
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Morocco MOR AFRICA
West Himalaya WHM ASIA-TROPICAL

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 294 in flower of 312 examined

Proportion of examined Lappula squarrosa in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 0 1 too few examined
Feb 0 0 too few examined
Mar 0 0 too few examined
Apr 8 8 100% 68% to 100%
May 39 42 93% 81% to 98%
Jun 137 139 99% 95% to 100%
Jul 73 76 96% 89% to 99%
Aug 26 30 87% 70% to 95%
Sep 7 9 78% 45% to 94%
Oct 3 3 too few examined
Nov 1 2 too few examined
Dec 0 2 too few examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Lappula squarrosa 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. 294 of 312 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 2,023 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -25.7 °C -13.2 °C -4.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.1 °C 23.7 °C 26.9 °C
Annual rainfall 331 mm 517 mm 730 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 29 mm 75 mm 122 mm

It is found where winters are arctic. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 2,023 research-grade observations of Lappula squarrosa that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 32 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.

  • Cynoglossospermum consanguineum Kuntze
  • Cynoglossospermum lappula (L.) Kuntze
  • Cynoglossum clusii Loisel.
  • Cynoglossum lappula Scop.
  • Echinospermum alpinum Schur
  • Echinospermum canescens var. angustifolium Opiz
  • Echinospermum canescens var. longifolium Opiz
  • Echinospermum casanense Wirz. ex Ledeb.
  • Echinospermum casanicum Wirz.
  • Echinospermum consanguineum Fisch. & C.A.Mey.
  • Echinospermum costae Sennen
  • Echinospermum cynoglossoides E.Mey. ex A.DC.
  • Echinospermum fabrei Sennen
  • Echinospermum ispahanicum Boiss.
  • Echinospermum lanceolatum Opiz
  • Echinospermum lappula (L.) Lehm.
  • Echinospermum obtusifolium Opiz
  • Echinospermum pedunculatum Opiz
  • Echinospermum squarrosum (Retz.) Rchb.
  • Echinospermum vulgare Sw. ex Schrad.
  • Lappula consanguinea Gürke
  • Lappula echinata Gilib. ex Fritsch
  • Lappula echinata var. consanguinea (Fisch. & C.A.Mey.) Brand
  • Lappula echinata var. erecta (A.Nelson) Brand

and 8 more.

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.