A steel-blue, spiny, leathery-leaved plant of the upper beach whose blue heads look like thistles but belong to the carrot family
Sea holly, Eryngium maritimum.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Sea holly
Native · flowers Jul–Sep · sand dunes and fine shingle
Eryngium maritimum — Apiaceae
Sea holly is a stiff, silvery-blue, spiny perennial of dunes and fine shingle whose thistle-like heads of steely blue flowers open in high summer. Despite the look it is neither a thistle nor a holly: it belongs to the carrot family, Apiaceae. Its waxy, prickly leaves and deep roots let it live in dry, salty, shifting ground.
How to spot them
- ▸Grey-blue, leathery, wavy leaves with spiny, holly-like margins, covered in a waxy cuticle
- ▸Rounded, thistle-like heads of blue flowers, sometimes with a metallic sheen, ringed by spiny bracts
- ▸Grows to about 60 cm on sand dunes and fine shingle around most of the coast
- ▸Look-alike: a true thistle — but this plant has grey, leathery, netted-veined leaves, and belongs to the carrot family, not the daisy family
- ▸Often grows with sea bindweed on the upper beach and dune edge
How to know it
Candied roots of this seaside plant, called eryngoes, were sold as sweetmeats and aphrodisiacs in Elizabethan England, and Shakespeare mentions them
Sea holly; Falstaff refers to 'snow eringoes' in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
Its waxy cuticle, deep roots and stiff spines help it retain water in dry, windy, salty sand
Sea holly — an adaptation to drought and salt.
Not related to Ilex despite the leaf shape, it is instead a cousin of fennel, parsnip and coriander
Sea holly is in the Apiaceae, the carrot family.
Flower heads of blue with a metallic sheen appear July to September on stiff stems up to about 60 cm on dunes and fine shingle
Sea holly.
Absent from the north and east of Scotland and from north-east England, this spiny dune plant is otherwise found around most UK coasts
Sea holly.
Quick-fire facts
- •Native perennial, up to about 60 cm, flowering July to September (Wildlife Trusts)
- •Family Apiaceae, the carrot family, alongside fennel, parsnip and coriander (Plantlife)
- •Absent from the north and east of Scotland and from north-east England (Plantlife)
- •The leaves have a waxy cuticle, helping the plant retain water in the arid conditions of dunes and shingle
- •In Elizabethan times its flowers were reputed to be an aphrodisiac and are referred to by Shakespeare; the deep roots were pulped, sugared and sold as sweets (Wildlife Trusts)
- •The candied roots were called eryngoes or eringoes; Falstaff hails 'snow eringoes' in The Merry Wives of Windsor
- •Loss of sand-dune habitat and trampling by visitors are its main threats
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Sea-holly
- Plantlife — Plants to spot at the seaside this summer