Silver bush-thistle

Members of the daisy family have many small flowers arranged together in a large flower head (a capitulum), which collectively appears to be a single “flower”. However, when examined more closely, the individual flowers in the flower heads of the silver shrub thistle can easily be distinguished.

Silver bush-thistle was discovered by a Danish botanist in 2002. It is considered endangered in the wild because it is confined to a very small area in southern Ecuador, where the forest has been heavily affected by logging and burning.

The plant growing in the greenhouses has a special status, as it was raised from seeds collected from the first known individual of the species. This individual forms the basis for the scientific description of the silver shrub thistle.