Eryngium giganteum

Eryngium giganteum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Apiales
Family:	Apiaceae
Genus:	Eryngium
Species:	E. giganteum
Binomial name
Eryngium giganteum L.

Eryngium giganteum (Miss Willmott's ghost) is a species of flowering plant in the Apiaceae family, native to the Caucasus and Iran. It is a short-lived herbaceous perennial thistle, growing to 1 m (3 ft 3 in), and producing branched heads of pale green conical flowerheads surrounded by spiny bracts in summer. The flowers turn blue at maturity. It usually dies after flowering and is therefore normally grown as a biennial. The common name refers to Ellen Willmott, who is said to have carried seeds at all times, planting them in the gardens of fellow horticulturalists.^[1]

This plant,^[2] and the cultivar 'Silver Ghost',^[3] have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.