Common name:
Spiny restharrow
Family:
Scientific name:
Ononis spinosa
Main flower color:
Range:
England and Wales
Height:
Up to 70 cm
Habitat:
Grassland, with heavy and/or clayish soils, calcium-rich
Flowers:
Produced singly at the upper leaf nodes - on reddish stems that are hairy, generally in two vertical rows rather than all around, and bear long, brownish-yellow spines. Petals are pink, whitish at the centre. The keel petal is longer than the two wing petals
Fruit:
Egg-shaped pods, a little shorter than the flowers
Leaves:
Trifoliate, with narrow, pointed, irregularly toothed, glandular-hairy leaflets
Season:
July to September
Rarity:
★★★★★
