Scientific name: Eryngium maritimum L.
Common name: Sea Holly
Description
Habit: A rigid, bushy, hairless, bluish green perennial, to 60 cm high.
Stems: Erect
Leaves: Basal leaves oval, variously lobed, truncate to cordate at base, strongly spiny, with conspicuous veins; stem leaves similar but sessile.
Flowers: Pale blue, stalkless, in globose to ovoid heads 1.5-3 cm across, interspersed with leaf-like spiny bracts; petals 5, free; stamens 5; ovary inferior and 2-celled.
Fruits: An achene; fruit head 1.5-3 cm, ovoid, covered with hooked spines.
Habitat: Sandy shores and mobile sand-dunes.
Distribution: Local.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No