Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Alpine Sea Holly

Eryngium alpinum

Alpine Sea Holly
Photo: Heinz Staudacher, CC BY-SA 4.0

Alpine sea holly is a hardy perennial with striking blue, spiny flowerheads, grown for ornament in dry, sunny, well-drained sites. Its key to success is sharp drainage and full sun; it resents wet, rich soil.

Family
Apiaceae (Carrot family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly once established; let the soil dry out between waterings and avoid waterlogging.
Soil
Dry, well-drained soil, ideally gritty or limestone-based.
Temperature
Hardy to cold winters, around -20 °C or lower; tolerates cold well but needs drainage in winter wet.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Jura, Alps to NW. Balkan Pen.
Climate
temperate

About

Eryngium alpinum, the alpine sea holly, alpine eryngo or queen of the Alps, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the family Apiaceae.

How to grow it

Eryngium alpinum is cultivated as an ornamental plant for its blue and purple flowerheads. It requires dry, well-drained soil and full sun.

Where it grows

This plant is native to Austria, Liechtenstein, Croatia, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Slovenia. It grows in subalpine scrub, rocky areas and wet pastures, preferably in limestone, at an altitude of 1,500–2,000 metres (4,900–6,600 ft) above sea level.

Other Eryngium plants

Amethyst eryngo · Rattlesnakemaster · Eryngium arenosum · California eryngo · Coastal eryngo · Beethistle · Eryngium babadaghense · Baldwin's eryngo · Eryngium billardieri · Eryngium bithynicum · Amethyst Eryngo · Field eryngo

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Eryngium alpinum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…