Sphaeranthus africanusL.

East Indian Globe Thistle

WFO wfo-0000043225 Accepted WFO 2026-06 7 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–g · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Sphaeranthus africanus, photographed by Abu Hamas
fig. a Abu Hamas, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-05-27 / obs. 199964056
Sphaeranthus africanus, photographed by coenobita
fig. b coenobita, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 29809954
Sphaeranthus africanus, photographed by Abu Hamas
fig. c Abu Hamas, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 199964523
Sphaeranthus africanus, photographed by coenobita
fig. d coenobita, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 29810040
Sphaeranthus africanus, photographed by coenobita
fig. e coenobita, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 29810050
Sphaeranthus africanus, photographed by Ramesh Shenai Jr.
fig. f Ramesh Shenai Jr., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 166774854
Sphaeranthus africanus, photographed by Ramesh Shenai Jr.
fig. g Ramesh Shenai Jr., CC BY 4.0 / obs. 169171047

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
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 2125230
Filed as
Sphaeranthus africanus L.
Det. by
Ross-Craig, S.
Collected
R. L. Specht 1948-10-13
Origin
AU
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

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 25 botanical countries

Regions where Sphaeranthus africanus is native: Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Tanzania, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, India, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia KenyaMadagascarMozambiqueTanzaniaChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanTaiwanBangladeshBorneoCambodiaIndiaJawaLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMyanmarNepalPhilippinesSri LankaThailandVietnamNorthern TerritoryQueenslandWestern Australia Andaman Is.
Native distribution of Sphaeranthus africanus, 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
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
India IND
Jawa JAW
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Philippines PHI
Sri Lanka SRL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Kenya KEN AFRICA
Madagascar MDG
Mozambique MOZ
Tanzania TAN
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Taiwan TAI
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD
Western Australia WAU

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.

Also published as 11 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.

  • Sphaeranthus africanus var. africanus
  • Sphaeranthus africanus var. suberiflorus (Hayata) Yamam.
  • Sphaeranthus alatus Blanco
  • Sphaeranthus cochinchinensis Lour.
  • Sphaeranthus glaber DC.
  • Sphaeranthus hildebrandtii Baker
  • Sphaeranthus microcephalus Willd.
  • Sphaeranthus microcephalus Vatke
  • Sphaeranthus ovalis Steetz
  • Sphaeranthus sphenocleoides Oliv. & Hiern
  • Sphaeranthus suberiflorus Hayata

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.