From one end of Spain to the other, climate changes a lot and so does its vegetation. In certain areas, it forms luxuriant woods, abundant in trees that shed their leaves like durmast oaks, linden trees, chestnut trees, elm trees, and maple trees. While in other areas there are only small shrubs, heather, ferns, brooms and a few other plants capable of enduring such dry weather.
You must be wondering, “But what does Spain have to do with it?”. It does because what you have in front of you is the flora of the Iberian peninsula. The Eryngium bourgatii comes from there and you find it mainly in the Pyrenees.
It’s in the Apiaceae family and is very much like a plant we are more familiar with, the Queen of the Alps (Eryngium alpinum). It blooms from July to September, when its blue flowers tinge the rock garden with a particular hue. But watch out for its spiny leaves: in ancient Greek, “erungion” means sea urchin, and maybe that’s where the name of its genus comes from.
