Eryngium ovinum

Eryngium ovinum, the blue devil, is a perennial herb of the family Apiaceae endemic to grasslands and grassy woodlands of southeastern Australia, particularly Victoria, southern New South Wales and South Australia. Unlike many umbellifers it has a distinctly thistle-like appearance. Plants arise from a stout taproot and form a basal rosette of stiff, narrowly lanceolate, spiny-margined leaves 10 to 20 centimetres long. The flowering stem is erect, branched, 30 to 80 centimetres tall, and often turns a striking metallic steely blue when in flower. The inflorescence is composed of dense ovoid to cylindrical heads of tiny blue flowers each subtended by stiff spiny bracts; the heads are clustered at the ends of the branches. Fruits are small ovoid schizocarps covered in scales. Once a common species of native grasslands, it has declined considerably with agricultural conversion of its habitat.