Description

• Up to 4’ tall
• Dicot, but imitates a monocot with its long narrow leaves and parallel veination (see The Uses of Eryngium, by Marie Scott Standifer, 179)
• Basal silver-green leaves, parallel veins, prickly margins. These leaves resemble yucca leaves, hence “yuccifolium”
• Small spherical white flower clusters arranged in terminal cymose or umbellate panicles, appx 1” across, with prickly bractlets. 10-40 flower heads per stalk, 100+/- flowers per head.
• Root: fibrous
• Reproduction: sexual, xenogamous, Temporal Dioecism. Temporally distinct periods between the pistillate and staminate phases of sexual development in individual specimens. This decreases geitonogamy (self-pollination) and maximizes outcrossing (cross pollination) (cf. Reproductive Biology, Brenda Molano-Flores)