Plants perennial, spiny herbs. Leaves alternate, sessile, often dissected. Inflorescences terminal, globose or ellipsoid, subtended by a few bracts, of many tightly packed capitula. Capitula with a single flower, with or without basal setae; phyllaries in 3-5 series, the outer free, the inner connate at the base, the outermost smallest and often spathulae with laciniate tips, the inner more lanceolate; corollas with cylindric tubes that beome campanulate distally, lobes long and linear; anthers exserted and with hairy tails; styles arms often hairy. Achenes ascending pilose; pappuses of short scales.
Echinops includes about 216 species. but only one is known from Somaliland, Echinops pappi. There are none reported from Somalia in the Flora of Somalia.
Note: GBIF records include introduced and cultivated plants. Consequently, the distribution shown often differs from statements about a taxon's native distribution.