Eryngium maritimum (L) Sea Holly
NOMENCLATURE
Eryngium : from Greek: to cure indigestion & wind.
maritimum : growing by the sea.
Holly : resembling Holly.
OTHER NAMES : eringoes, sea hulver, sea holme.
Panicaut, (France). Krausdistel, (Germany).
BSBI Picture Link to Eryngium maritimum
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
TYPE : intensely glaucous, glabourous, branched perennial,
15-60cm. Hs. AROMA : sweet. TASTE : pleasant, sweet.
ROOTS : creeping, sending off fleshy rooting branches to 6 foot or >.
STEMS : branched, glaucous above, rigid, solid.
UMBELS : heads 1.5-3 cm, becoming ovoid.
LEAVES : basal leaves, 5-12 cm diam, coriaceous, suborbicular. 3-5 lobes,
cauline-sessile, palmate, thick prominent veins, spinous toothed with thickened
cartilaginous margin. Petiole unwinged, = to lamina. Pedunculate, subglobose, capitula
surround flowers. Cauline similar, smaller, sessile. Cotyledons contracted into a petiole.
BRACTS : oblong-cuneate, 1-3 pairs of broad spinescent teeth, > than capitulaum, texture
as leaves. Bracteoles, linear, tricuspidate, spinous, 3-fid, purplish blue, exceeding the flowers.
FLOWERS : bluish white. Sepals 4-5 mm, > than petals, lanceolate, prominent midrib,
excurrent as a stout spine. Petals narrow, erect, deeply notched, tip inflexed. Ovary a flat
disc at apex. Styles slightly thickened at base. Fl.6-9.
FRUIT : 13-15mm covered with papillae, which are longer at the apex, scarcely compressed.
Commisure broad. Carpophore present. Carpels obscurely ridged, vittae slender, covered in
overlapping scale hooks. Styles 6mm, divergent to recurved. Stigma tapering. 2n=16.
HABITAT : sea shore, shingle, above high tide. sandy, well drained, salty soil.
DISTRIBUTION : native. Once common, increased beach usage made it rare. New haven
in coastal gardens. Never in East or N. of Yorkshire. Coastal Europe, as far as S. Sweden.
BSBI Distribution Map for Eryngium maritimum (UK)
MEDICINAL USES
PARTS : roots.
EFFECT : diuretic, anti-inflammatory, expectorant.
APPLICATION : decoction for urinary infections, cystitis, urethritis, excess
urine, prostrate complaints, renal colic.
HISTORICAL MEDICINAL USES
Dioscorides : “A remedy for flatulence.”
Gerard : “Roots for liver sickness, ease cramps, convultions & falling sickness.
Candied, for old people to restore their youth.”
Culpepper “Distilled water helps melancholy of heart, quartan & quotidian agues, & stiff necks.”
Candied roots used as aphrodisiac for the old & amending defects in the young, in l7thC.
Roots antiscorbutic, diaphretic,. diuretic. stimulant, expectorant.
EDIBLE USES
Cultivated by 1648. Roots have chestnut taste, boiled and served with sauce, or candied as
sweets, sold as ‘sweetmeat’, available by 1656. Young leaves & flowering shoots boil as veg.
l6thC-l9thC: Roots candied In Colchester, Essex & sold as Eringoes, a ‘sweetmeat’ .
By Elizabeth I they were known as kissing comfits, lozengers to freshen the breath. Once
the town of Cholchester presented Queen Charlotte, consort to George III with a box of sweetmeat,
their sale increased greatly. Robert Buxton of Colchester achieved national fame for them.
Shakespear, ‘Merry Wives Of Windsor’ : “Let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves,
hail kissing comfits, & snow Eringoes.”
l8thC : roots an ingredient with 18 snails as 'Mock Asses Milk' for infant feeding.
GARDEN USES
Warm well drained gravely soil in sun. Seed & divide roots in spring.roots in spring.
FOLKLORE
Plutarch : “If one goat taketh it into her mouth, it causeth her to stand still.
& afterwards the whole flock, until the shepered takes it from her.”
Plant of Libra.
EXTERNAL LINKS FOR Eryngium maritimum
These links to trusted websites and institutions may provide in depth or additional information regards cultivation, chemistry, edibility, images etc. for the species. Links last updated Aug 2012.
Wikipedia (EU) Plants For a Future (UK)
Bio Info (UK) APHOTOFLORA (UK)
Bio Images (UK)
Medicinal Herb Info (USA)
Online Guide To Umbelliferae Of The British Isles' Compiled By J.M.Burton 2002
