Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Eryngium ovinum
Common name
Blue devil
Family
Apiaceae
Where found
Woodland, grassy areas, and disturbed sites. Mainly tablelands, ACT, and the Western Slopes. Occasionally elsewhere.
Notes
Annual or perennial herb to 0.60 m high, upper parts often metallic blue in colour. Leaves, bracts below and within the flower heads, and calyx lobes on individual flowers, with sharp tips. Basal leaves in a rosette, deeply dissected, 7–45 cm long, the segments linear, 25-70 mm long. Stem leaves opposite each other, 1–6 cm long, less divided. Flower heads blue, oval to globular, 40-52 mm in diameter overall, with many individual small flowers. Individual flowers with 5 blue petals. Bracts within the flower heads 5–20 mm long, greenish when immature, becoming metallic blue. Flowers mainly November–January.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Eryngium~ovinum (accessed 14 January, 2021)
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