A distinctive stiff, thistle-like plant which is actually in the Parsley and Celery family (Apiacea). A rosette of very spiny, shiny, dark green leaves emerge from underground rootstock in winter. As the rosette of leaves matures in late spring, spiny thistle-like flower-heads emerge from the centre of the rosette. The large upright first flower-head is surrounded by spiny bracts. Two or three branches jut out from below this first flowerhead, each branch topped by a smaller set of flowerheads, each of these flowerheads are, in turn, subtended by their own junior flowerheads and so on in an ever diminishing fractal pattern. The flowerheads are initially green but soon a blue tinge, starting at the centre, spreads to the subordinate flowerheads and branches, eventually spreading even to the leaves. This blue, initially greenish silver, grows in intensity as summer progresses and is often an intense cobalt or sky blue by mid summer. The true flowers are produced about this time, tiny flowers amongst the bracts of the flowerhead. Soon after this, the colour begins to slowly fade and the whole plant dries off. The brittle inflorescence may break off in late-summer winds, scattering seeds as it tumbles over the grasses.