Eryngium yuccifolium

Eryngium yuccifolium was much admired in our old succulent bed by humans and bees alike. This species from the eastern US has greyish green, yucca-like foliage and slender three foot stems holding egg-shaped clusters of white flowers. The flowers have a light honey-like fragrance. This peculiar genus from the carrot family is found around the world but with its centre of diversity in South America. There are also a number of European species. Rattlesnake master, as it is known, is native to eastern North America where it is a near native of Ontario occurring just across the water in Michigan, Ohio, and Minnesota. Surely it could have worked harder to become a dual citizen! Still, this species is very much a part of the Great Lakes ecoregion and would make sense, ecologically speaking, in native plant gardens in eastern Canada. Deer and rabbit resistant.