Sea holly and the bee

Today's the day ……………………….. to google

I took this picture today of the bee on the sea holly - easy because it was literally humming with bees.  It's one of my favourite plants in the garden, but I don't know a lot about it.  So I thought I would do a bit of googling to find out more about the Eryngiums.

So for your information -

There are about 250 different species of Eryngium and they have been used as food and medicine in a variety of countries.  Medicinal uses include as a herbal remedy for scorpion stings and as anti-inflammatory agents. Eryngium yields an essential oil and contains many kinds of terpenoids, saponins, flavonoids, coumarins and steroids.  (Hope you're keeping up with this?!) 

The roots have been used as vegetables or sweetmeats.  Young shoots and leaves are sometimes used as vegetables with a taste like asparagus and in parts of the Americas and Asia as a culinary herb similar to coriander.

And finally - in the language of flowers, they represent 'admiration' ………………………...