Thistle asparagus

A beautiful thistle plant with surprising uses: edible and medicinal. The latter is already hidden in its (ancient Greek) name, Eryngium means: healing of indigestion and flatulence!
First, in spring, you can place a dark bucket over the plant; the young shoots that grow are deliciously tender and edible like asparagus!
The pale green plant grows 15-60 cm tall and forms deep and edible (!) rhizomes. They are boiled or candied. The plant blooms in July and August with white or light blue flowers in ten to twenty capitula. These capitula are also edible, 1-1.5 cm in size and surrounded by spiny bracts (involucral bracts).
In traditional herbal medicine, a medicinal effect is known against gallstones, urinary tract infections, skin conditions, coughs, and constipation.
This perennial plant grows best in calcareous soil, in the sun.

An interesting story I read on the website of our colleague Cruydt Hoeck: In Voorne and Beierland, this plant has a special name: Onrust (Unrest). The name originated from an old custom of hanging the plant from the attic with a thread. The rising (warm) air causes the plant to spin or move. As long as the plant kept spinning, nothing was wrong. However, if the plant stopped spinning or hung still, there was a witch in the house. No, then rather a little Onrust in the house.

Names:
Latin: Eryngium campestre
Dutch: Aspergedistel
Also known as: Echte Kruisdistel
English: Field Eryngo