Restharrow, Common

Information on Common Restharrow

Common Name: Common Restharrow
Scientific Name: Ononis repens
Irish Name: Fréamhacha tairne
Family Group: Fabaceae
Distribution: View Map (Courtesy of the BSBI)
Flowering Period


Click for list of all flowering by month
Common Restharrow is not easily confused with other wild plants on this web site.


Pretty little pink 10-20mm long peaflowers are borne, usually singly, in leafy racemes on this little shrubby perennial from June to September. It is a low-growing, hairy plant which spreads by rooting at intervals along its stems and also by its long rhizomes. The ovate, trefoil leaves are sticky and only barely notched, and the stems have weak, soft spines.  Short seed pods are produced in autumn.  This is a native plant belonging to the family Fabaceae.        

I first identified this plant in Killiney, Co Dublin in 1976 and photographed it in Killoughter, Co Wicklow in 2005.

 

If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre

Also known as Sreang-bogha, perhaps referring to its long, underground, wiry rhizomes, farmers found this plant most difficult to deal with as it used to literally 'arrest the harrow' by catching in farm implements. 

Restharrow, Common
Restharrow, Common
Restharrow, Common