Sphaeranthus indicusL.

East Indian Globe Thistle

WFO wfo-0000014099 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Sphaeranthus indicus, photographed by Paulmathi Vinod
fig. a Paulmathi Vinod, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-02-12 / obs. 179242582
Sphaeranthus indicus, photographed by Kym Nicolson
fig. b Kym Nicolson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 74656364
Sphaeranthus indicus, photographed by S.MORE
fig. c S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 60143998
Sphaeranthus indicus, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. d Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 135227694
Sphaeranthus indicus, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. e Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 131730057
Sphaeranthus indicus, photographed by Rohit
fig. f Rohit, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 49565116
Sphaeranthus indicus, photographed by Tony Eales
fig. g Tony Eales, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 165197356
Sphaeranthus indicus, photographed by Siddarth Machado
fig. h Siddarth Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 56415801

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 17 botanical countries

Regions where Sphaeranthus indicus is native: China South-Central, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia China South-CentralAssamBangladeshCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaLaosMyanmarNepalSri LankaThailandVietnamNorthern TerritoryQueenslandSouth AustraliaWestern Australia Andaman Is.
Native distribution of Sphaeranthus indicus, 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
Assam ASS
Bangladesh BAN
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Laos LAO
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Sri Lanka SRL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD
South Australia SOA
Western Australia WAU
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE

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 3 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 hirtus Willd.
  • Sphaeranthus mollis Roxb. ex DC.
  • Sphaeranthus mollis Roxb.

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.