ECHINOPS – Erakina

The thistle like plants that are hardy perennial.

It is a large genus of Mediterranean herbs which have prickles on their heads, with one flower combined together to form dense structures. 

Classification

     Kingdom –  Plantae

     Clades –      Tracheophytes 

     Clade –        Angiosperms

     Order-         Asterales

     Family –      Asteraceae

     Genus-        Echinops

These plants are native to Europe, Asia, North Africa. It is the host plant of weevil Larinus vulpes. These also belong to one of the largest genus and family of herbs.Echinops are easily identified by their spherical crown of deep blue flowers and prickly, woolly foliage, which is often gray-green in colour. It’s a proper ground plant, a good cut flower, and a good border plant, capable of attracting any pollinators like bees and insects in the area. It is well combined with other summer flowers like cardoon, echinacea, miscanthus grasses. It grows well in gravel gardens and wildlife areas by taking small plants while digging a hole larger than a pot with grit of drainage and after that seeds can be self feed freely which can be collected freely.

Few of Echinops species are: 

• Echinops adenocaulos 
• Echinops bannaticus
• Echinops chantavicus
• Echinops echinatus 

The meaning of their name is just the head of flowers that look like hedgehogs and it also symbolizes independence and nobility. As these plants have spines it is recommended to handle them with precautions like wearing gloves. These are grown in well dried soil and mainly blooms during summers upto height of 50 cm. They also need partial sunlight and average amounts of water.These plants are low maintenance.Since the plant’s roots are anti-inflammatory and galactagogue, it has been used in medicine for centuries to treat breast distension, mastitis, and a shortage of milk in nursing mothers.