Blue Globe Thistle vs climbing-oleander

Echinops bannaticus compared with Strophanthus gratus

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Blue Globe Thistle	climbing-oleander
Kingdom	Animalia (Animals)	Plantae (Plants)
Phylum	Chordata (Chordates)	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)
Class	Mammalia (Mammals)	Magnoliopsida (Dicots)
Order	Afrosoricida (Afrosoricida)	Gentianales (Gentianales)
Family	Tenrecidae	Apocynaceae
Genus	Echinops	Strophanthus
Species	Echinops bannaticus	Strophanthus gratus

Conservation Status

Blue Globe Thistle

NE — Not Evaluated

climbing-oleander

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Blue Globe Thistle	climbing-oleander
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Blue Globe Thistle

Habitat

Typically found in diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Range

Found across Europe (11 countries) and North America (United States).

climbing-oleander

Habitat

Typically found in diverse terrestrial habitats from tropical forests to temperate regions.

Range

Distributed across Guinea and India.

Blue Globe Thistle

The Blue Globe Thistle (Echinops bannaticus) is a species in the genus Echinops. Typically found in diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Climbing Oleander, Strophanthus gratus, is a woody liana or climbing shrub in the family Apocynaceae native to tropical West and Central Africa, occurring in rainforest margins, gallery forest, and secondary forest from Senegal to Uganda. The species belongs to a genus celebrated for the cardiac glycosides and arrow poisons produced in the seeds; Strophanthus species were the source of the drug ouabain (g-strophanthin), historically used in cardiac medicine and by African hunters as an arrow poison applied to hunting darts. Climbing Oleander produces large, funnel-shaped flowers with white to pale pink twisted petals and a fringe of elongated lobes at the corolla mouth, borne in terminal cymes that are highly ornamental. The name 'climbing oleander' refers to the superficial resemblance of the flowers to the related Mediterranean oleander (Nerium oleander). The species climbs by twining its stems around supporting vegetation and is occasionally cultivated as an ornamental in tropical gardens. The seeds contain strophanthin and other potent glycosides that affect the cardiac system; all parts of the plant are toxic if ingested. The species is not currently assessed as threatened within its native tropical African range.