It resembles the better known sea holly (Eryngium maritimum), but is taller and less robust, and the stem and leaves are paler and not bluish-green.

The stems are thinner, the branches are longer and the globular flower heads are white and much smaller than the sea holly.

[2] Eryngium campestre has a mainly Central and Southern Europe distribution, north to Germany and Holland.

[5] It is very uncommon in dry grassland on neutral or calcareous soils in the southeast of the British Isles, having first been recorded in 1662 by the naturalist John Ray in Devon.

It has statutory protection in Somerset and Devon and is persisting in several sites there, but elsewhere it is mostly a short-lived casual of waste ground, road verges and rough pastures.