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.

[2] The species is sparingly naturalized in scattered locations in Canada and the United States.

[3][4] It is a compact, bushy herbaceous perennial thistle, growing to 60 cm (24 in) tall, with broad prickly leaves and bearing globes of steel-blue flowers 2.5 cm - 4.5 cm in diameter, in late summer.

ruthenicus[7] have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

This Cardueae article is a stub.