Echinops ritro, the southern globethistle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to southern and eastern Europe (from Spain east to Turkey, Ukraine, and Belarus), and western Asia. The species is sparingly naturalized in scattered locations in Canada and the United States. Echinops ritro is a compact, bushy herbaceous perennial thistle, growing to tall, with broad prickly leaves and bearing globes of steel-blue flowers 2.5 cm - 4.5 cm in diameter, in late summer. Echinops ritro and the subspecies E. ritro subsp. ruthenicus have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Subspecies Echinops ritro subsp. meyeri (DC.) Kožuharov Echinops ritro subsp. ritro Echinops ritro subsp. ruthenicus (M.Bieb.) Nyman Echinops ritro subsp. sartorianus (Boiss. & Heldr.) Kožuharov Echinops ritro subsp. siculus (Strobl) Greuter Echinops ritro subsp. thracicus (Velen.) Kožuharov References ritro Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of Europe Flora of Asia