Sea holly (Eryngium planum) is a perennial flower that looks like a glowing thistle, with striking steely-blue color. It is excellent for dry soils. Attractive, Sea Holly plants (Eryngium) are striking ornamental perennials grown for their arresting, thistle-like, silvery, or blue-tinted flower heads adorned with a ruff of showy bracts.
Cultures worldwide have used Eryngium extracts as anti-inflammatory agents. Eryngium yields an essential oil and contains many kinds of terpenoids, saponins, flavonoids, coumarins, and steroids. The flowers of Eryngium planum 'Blue Glitter' stand well above the basal rosette of leaves. The plant produces many tightly packed, glittering steel-blue flowers throughout the summer growing season.
eryngium pen blue, Eryngium planum (Blue Eryngo, Blue Sea Holly, Flat Sea Holly, Sea Holly ... Sea hollies (Eryngium) have spiky leaves and thistle-like flowers in colours ranging from grey to intense cobalt blue, surrounded by a characteristic 'ruff'. They make striking garden plants and have excellent wildlife value, particularly for pollinators. Eryngiums are a diverse range of thistle-like perennials. Though not all are armoured, most have an architectural appearance.
eryngium pen blue, Origins? Some grow in the sand dunes of northern Europe, others in dry, rocky areas of the Mediterranean and the Near East. Eryngium is the largest genus within the carrot or umbel family, Apiaceae, and includes annuals, biennials and perennials, ranging in height from 3cm up to 3m. Its members are distinguished by tiny flowers packed together to form a tight umbel surrounded by spiky bracts or involucral leaves.
