Flowers | Flower Facts | Eryngium
Eryngium
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Name: pronounced e-RIN-jum, and commonly called sea holly or alpine thistle.
Description: The plant has deepy-cut leaves shaped like holly, and sometimes just as spiky. The leaves surround the stem like frilly collars, culminating in a raspberry-like flowerhead at the top of the stem.
Origin: The plant is native to Siberia, the Balkans and Alpine regions, but it has been cultivated in Western Europe since 1567
Colour: All shades of blue-green from navy with bottle green, through steel blues and gunmetal, to a brilliant sky-blue.
Availability: All year round.
Varieties: Eryngium alpinum has the biggest collar around the flowerhead, a huge fringed affair like an Elizabethan ruff.
Trivia:
Medicinal: It was originally grown for its healing properties.


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Eryngium