| Scientific Name: | Eryngium alpinum |
| Common Name: | alpine sea holly |
| Family Name: | Apiaceae |
| Origin: | Europe |
| Hardiness Zone: | Zone 2: (-46 to -40 °C) |
| Plant Type: | Herbaceous perennial |
| Mature Size: | 0.4 - 0.7m x 0.3 - 0.6m (height x width) |
| Habit: | Spreading |
| Form: | Mounded |
| Texture: | Medium |
| Landscape Uses: | Accent plant, Attract beneficial insects, Cut flower or foliage, Dried flower or fruit, Fall interest, Perennial border, Summer interest |
| Exposure: | Full sun |
| Soil or Media: | Rocky or gravelly or dry, Well-drained |
| Leaves: | Simple, Alternate, Basal, Leathery, Heavily veined, Palmate venation, Glabrous, Ovate, Reniform, Other, Dentate, Pinnately lobed, Spinose |
| Flowers: | Umbel, Blue, Jun-Jul-Aug |
| Fruit: | Achene, Schizocarp, Brown, Aug |
| Key ID Features: | |
| Thistle-like in appearance; stems bluish; basal leaves undivided, ovate, most blades 10-15cm long x 5-13cm wide, margin with large, margin dentate, petioles 10-20cm long; stem leaves smaller, sessile, ovate, palmately-divided into 3 lobes, margin spinose; flower 'heads' egg-shaped, blue-violet, to 5cm long, surrounded by a by 12-18 attractive, finely-divided, spiny-toothed, blue-gray bracts that extend from the base of each flower head. | |