Coastal Eryngo

Eryngium armatum (S. Wats.) Coult. & Rose, Bot. Gaz. 13: 141. 1888.
Eryngium petiolalum var. armatum S. Wats.; Brewer & Wats. Bot. Calif. 1: 255. 1876. Eryngium longislylum Coult. & Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 7: 55. 1900. Eryngium Harmsianum H. Wolff, Repert. Sp. Nov. 8: 415. 1910.
Low, caulescent, glabrous perennials, 0.5-4 (or 6?) dm. high, from a fascicle of thick fibrous roots, the stems prostrate or ascending, diffusely branching from the base; basal leaves thick, rosulate, oblanceolate, 0.5-3 dm. long, 0.5-3 cm. broad, tapering at the base, obtuse or acute at the apex, remotely serrate to coarsely incised with spinulose marginal teeth, the venation reticulate; petioles winged and short, or obsolete; cauline leaves like the basal, reduced and narrower upwards; inflorescence cymose, the heads numerous, rather small, shortpedunculate, the flowers numerous; heads yellowish or occasionally bluish, globose, 5-15 mm. in diameter; bracts 8-10, rigid, lanceolate, 10-20 mm. long, 2-5 mm. broad, callous-margined, entire or rarely with 1 or 2 teeth, often scarious-winged at the base, exceeding the heads; bractlets like the bracts, 5-10 mm. long, scarious-winged at the base, enfolding and exceeding the fruit; coma wanting; sepals ovate-lanceolate, 1-2 mm. long, acuminate, entire; petals oblong to oblanceolate, 0.5-1 mm. long; styles shorter than to considerably exceeding the sepals; fruit ovoid, 1.5-3 mm. long, densely covered with narrow, acute, flat, white or brown scales, the calycine longest, 0.5-1 mm. long, or the scales obsolete below.
Type locality: Monterey to Humboldt County, California, Brewer.
Distribution: Northern and central California coast; inland in the vicinity of San Francisco Bay and its estuaries (Heller 6842, Jones 2288).

Eryngium armatum, known by the common names coastal eryngo and prickly coyote thistle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae.

It is endemic to the coastline of northern and central California, where it grows along beaches and coastal bluffs. Many populations are in the San Francisco Bay Area.