Eryngium integrifolium Walter

Blue Flower Eryngo; Savannah Eryngo; Blue Flower Coyote Thistle

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Blue Flower Eryngo is a native herbaceous short lived perennial or biennial in the Carrot family (Apiaceae). It is native to most of Alabama. Blue Flower Eryngo occurs in seeps, in wet pinelands, in bogs, and in savannahs. It is a perennial from a hardened base. Stems are erect, unbranched below the inflorescence, striate, and glabrous. The stems are green or reddish-purple in color. The leaves are basal and cauline. The basal leaves are petiolate, ovate to elliptic or oblong in outline, thick, glabrous, with crenate or entire margins. Basal leaves are often not present at flowering time. Stem leaves are alternate, short petiolate to sessile with the petiole sheathing the stem, ovate to elliptic or linear in outline, thick, entire to crenate or serrate, and glabrous. Flower are produced in heads. The heads are arranged in cymes. The heads are sub-hemispheric to globose with 6-10 rigid linear bracts subtending the heads that extend outward beyond the heads. The bracts have 3-5 spine-like teeth along the margins and are blue or white in color. Individual flowers are subtended by a bract with 3 apical teeth that extend between the flowers or fruit, giving the heads a bristly appearance. The petals of the flowers are white to blue in color. The fruit is obpyramidal with club shaped or flat papillae.—A. Diamond

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Native FACW (NWPL)

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