Fujairah Flora: Echinops
The UAE has a stunning variety of natural habitats, each supporting a vast array of species that have addapted to the difficult conditions of a particular environment. In a landscape dominated by sandy expanses and rolling dunes of the desert, there are fertile oases thriving with life.
On both coasts, where desert interacts with sea, the dominat feature is salt flats and saline marshes.
The rugged mountains of the east, dotted with riverine valleys, open out into fertile plains. These environments support a variety of plant and animal life.
Echinops is a genus of about 120 species of flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae, commonly known as globe thistles.
They have spiny foliage and produce blue or white spherical flower heads. They are native to Europe, east to central Asia, and south to the mountains of tropical Africa. Globe thistle is the host plant of weevil Larinus vulpes. It can be found in the Hajar Mountains of Fujairah.
