Perennial, spiny. Flowers white or yellow; central flower of an umbellet sessile and complete, enclosed by the woody receptacle and the pedicels of the male flowers. Calyx teeth in male flowers prominent. Fruit oblong; ridges obs¬cure; furrows 1-vittate. Inner seed face sulcate or involute.

A genus of about a dozen species extending from the Mediterranean region to Baluchistan in W. Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Lower Taxon

• Echinophora scabra Gilli