A genus of spiny plants in the daisy family, commonly called globe thistles, grown as ornamental plants for their distinctive round spiky flower heads.
From Greek echinos (hedgehog) + opsis (appearance), literally 'hedgehog-like appearance,' named for flowers that look like spiky blue or purple hedgehogs.
Globe thistles (Echinops) are bees' favorite flowers—their distinctive spiky spheres can contain hundreds of tiny flowers blooming in sequence to keep bees visiting for weeks.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.