Eryngium maritimum 濱海刺芹、海冬青

Common name: Sea-holly
Scientific name: Eryngium maritimum 濱海刺芹、海冬青
Genus: Eryngium 刺芹屬
Family: Apiaceae or Umbelliferae 傘形科, 繖形科, celery, carrot or parsley family

Remarks*: 

Origin: native

Date: 21st June

269 An intensely glaucous, spiny, glabrous perennial, can reach up to 60 cm.

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270 Leaves all spiny, basal leaves 5-12 cm, sub-orbicular, stem leaves palmate (see above photo).

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267 Flowers heads 1.5 - 2.5 cm; bracts spiny; bracts spiny.

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Flowers 8 mm across; bracteoles are longer than flowers.

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Further information about the morphology of the flowers, from "Biological Flora of the British Isles: Eryngium maritimum"

The flowering plant produces one terminal umbel that is larger and flowers earlier than the other umbels (Burmester 2010). The inflorescence is a dense, subglobose or ovoid capitulum, 1.5–3 cm in length c. 2 cm across (Bodkin 1986; Stace 2010) with ovate, spiny bracts. The inflorescence is pale blue to conspicuously amethystine. Each inflorescence contains 25–50, pedicellate, inconspicuous five-petalled flowers. The sepals are 4–5 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, aristate and bluish. Petals are light blue, each about 10 mm long. The flowers have purplish-bluish filaments, sometimes more pink (Sell & Murrell 2009). The bracteoles are 3-cuspidate, nearly three-lobed, greenish above and below, never bicoloured, 2.5–4 cm in length, herbaceous or coriaceous, and ovate or ovate-lanceolate (Mathias & Lincoln 1941). In the axils of the bracts, branches (paraclades) develop up to a third order, with further flower heads on these. Thus, a whorl develops below the terminal umbel. Fertile seeds develop mainly in the upper flower heads. The number of flower heads is usually, but not necessarily always, larger in older individuals (Burmester 2010). The close agglomeration of flowers in a flower head and the coloured bracts serve to attract insects (Hegi 1975). During the flowering season, cells enclose anthocyanins which cause the colour and dissipate with drying at the end of the growing season (Eberle 1979).

The ovary is epigynous with an anatropous ovule. Nectar glands, with nectar of high glucose content (about 2%), occur on a disc at the base of the flowers (Eberle 1979). Flowering starts with the basal flowers of the inflorescence and proceeds upwards (Eberle 1979). The flowers are protandrous (Bell 1971), and the style is receptive 3–5 days after anthesis (Burmester 2010). Flowers are usually cross-pollinated but selfing is possible (Klotz, Kühn & Durka 2002).