Eryngium ovinum

Botanical Name: Eryngium ovinum
Common Name: Blue devil
Family: Apiaceae
Size: 40-70cm H x 40-80cm W
Leaves: Narrow, elliptical, variable, 1-4cm long on a short stalk, dark green to grey upper surface, densely hairy undersurface with irregularly round-toothed or entire margins.

Flowers: Bright metallic blue spiky heads.
Flowering Time: Summer.
Fruit: A schizocarp (= a dry fruit that splits into single-seeded parts when ripe).
Habitat/distribution: Temperate woodlands and grasslands. Also WA, SA, Vic, NSW.
Where to See: A few places, mainly in SE Tasmania: Laggon Flats; Big Green Island, Bass Strait; Tasman Highway, Pontypool; near Boomer Creek, Little Swanport; Jim Bacon Memorial Reserve, Springfield, Moonah; Broadmarsh; Teatree Road, Brighton; Pontville Army Range, Brighton; Black Charlies Opening, Tasman Highway, Runnymede; Fulham Road, Dunalley; some other private properties.
Other notes: This species is listed as vulnerable under the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995. From the Listing statement for the species: it is a perennial species, dying down during autumn, emerging in late winter, and flowering in summer. In late winter the plant develops a rosette of narrow, spiny, divided leaves with the flower stems extending and producing a mass of crowded bright blue thistle-like flower heads on rigid branched stems in mid-summer. The terminal flowerheads open first followed by those on the side branches below with each flower lasting several weeks (Ollerenshaw 1981)î. Best in fertile, heavy soils in sunny positions.