Additional notes (click to expand)
Medicinal
Culpeper: ‘Ononidis, Arrestae bovis etc, Of Cammock or Rest Harrow, so called because it makes oxen stand still when they are ploughing. ... it breaks the Stone (viz the bark of it), the root itself, according to Pliny, helps the Falling Sickness [= epilepsy], according to Mathiolus, helps ruptures.’ He gives no uses for the leaves (except ‘see Roots’), although the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis lists it as having medicinal value under both roots and leaves.
Culpeper, Nicholas. (1650). A Physical Directory . London, Peter Cole.
The 'roote of Rest Harrow is drie in the third degree and somewhat hoate [=hot]’. He says it is good to provoke urine and break the stone (renal calculi), for the falling evil (viz epilepsy - he says according to Pliny, but it is not in my copy of Pliny who uses ‘boeufs gall’ for epilepsy so may just be a misunderstanding and muddle with its French name Arreste Beuf), cures toothache if the boiled root is held in the mouth while still warm'.
Lyte, Henry. (1578). Nievve Herball or Historie of Plantes.
Nomenclature
Ononidis, Arrestae bovis
Culpeper, Nicholas. (1650). A Physical Directory . London, Peter Cole.
Cammocke, Reste Harrow, ground Furze,Whyn, Pety Whyn, and in Latin Anonis and Ononis, and later writers call it Arrest bovis, Rest Bovis, Remora Afatri, Acutella. And that Cratevas called it Aegopyros (though how he knows this is obscure as Cratevas’s manuscript was lost in antiquity); In French Arreste beuf and gives Dutch and German names.
Lyte, Henry. (1578). Nievve Herball or Historie of Plantes.
Ononis repens is a synonym of Ononis spinosa subsp. procurrens according to Kew and the Minnesota Botanic Garden website, accessed January 2017.
www.theplantlist.org www.theplantlist.org
Family name changed from Papilionaceae to Fabaceae.
Plants of the World online, Kew Science http://plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:510480-1
link
Other use
Notes: Used to be eaten as a vegetable, but not much used in herbal medicine now.
Oakeley, Dr. H. F. . (2013). The Gardens of the Pharmacopoeia Londinensis.
link
Ononis repens L. subsp. procurrens
Family: FABACEAEGenus: Ononis
Species: repens L.
SubSpecies: procurrens
Common names: Restharrow, Cammock
Pharmacopoeia Londinensis name: Ononis
Distribution summary: Europe
Habit: Perennial
Garden status: Not currently grown
Reason for growing: Medicinal