184 FLOWERS OF THE SEA-COAST 



Sea Holly (Eryngium maritimum, L.) 



The distribution of Sea Holly to-day (as far as our knowledge goes) 

 is limited to the North Temperate Zone in Europe, and N. Africa. 

 In Great Britain it is absent from West Sussex, Northumberland, 

 Wigtown, Berwick, as far as Aberdeen, and N. Ebudes, occurring on 

 the coasts of other maritime counties, and to the north it is found in the 

 Orkneys and Hebrides. It is found throughout Ireland. 



A maritime species, addicted to a sandy habitat, on the shores of 



SEA HOLLY (Eryngium maritimum, L.) 



Photo. J. H. Crabtree 



the British Isles, it is both a xerophyte or dry-soil type and a halophyte 

 or salt-lover. It grows with Sea Kale, Sea Rocket, Samphire, Thrift, 

 Sea Milk wort, and many other sand-loving species. 



The English name suggests one of its main characteristics, its 

 spinous character, like that of Holly, and its Thistle-like appearance. 

 The plant is bluish-green in colour, and has stiffly hairy, spiny, leathery 

 leaves, the radical leaves being rounded and 3-lobed, with cartilaginous 

 margins, and folded. The stem is rigid, much-branched, with nume- 

 rous leaves, the upper leaves clasping the stem and the lobes starting 

 from a common centre. The plant has long thick roots. 



The flowerheads, which are blue, are in heads with involucres, with 

 a whorl of stiff coloured bracts or leaflike organs below, spinous, longer 



