Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A European seashore plant (Eryngium maritimum) in the parsley family, having prickly leaves and dense heads of small blue or purplish flowers.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The eringo, Eryngium maritimum. Also
sea-holm and sea-hulver. Seeeringo and Eryngium.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- (Bot.) An evergeen seashore plant (
Eryngium maritimum ). Seeeryngium .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The plant Eryngium maritimum.
- noun More generally, any of several species of
plants in the genus Eryngium.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun widely cultivated southern European acanthus with whitish purple-veined flowers
- noun European evergreen eryngo with twisted spiny leaves naturalized on United States east coast; roots formerly used as an aphrodisiac
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word sea holly.
Examples
Sorry, no example sentences found.
chained_bear commented on the word sea holly
Ooh, I like this plant! It reminds me of the conversation we had recently about celery. (That wasn't on the celery page, I don't think... was it? Rolig will remember.)
August 14, 2008
plethora commented on the word sea holly
zelena zelena :)
August 18, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word sea holly
Aha! Thanks, pleth!
August 18, 2008
super-logos commented on the word sea holly
I tried to grow a sea holly in my garden here in SC but it died. I think it requires the sandy soil of the littorals. But it is a neat plant.
August 21, 2008
ruzuzu commented on the word sea holly
"In Elizabethan times in England, these plants were believed to be a strong aphrodisiac. They are named in a speech by Falstaff:
“ "Let the sky rain potatoes;
let it thunder to the tune of Green-sleeves,
hail kissing-comfits and snow eringoes sea-holly,
let there come a tempest of provocation..." ”
—Falstaff, Act 5, scene v, "The Merry Wives of Windsor", William Shakespeare"
--From the Wikipedia page for Eryngium maritimum.
February 1, 2011