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Asperula cynanchica
Also called Squinancywort
Squinancywort is a low, sprawling perennial of calcareous and coastal grasslands across much of Europe, with tiny white flowers. It grows best in full sun in lean, free-draining, alkaline ground such as chalk or limestone.
Cynanchica pyrenaica (syn. Asperula cynanchica), commonly known as squinancywort, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae. It is native to much of southern and central Europe from Spain and Ireland to Russia, where it grows in calcareous and coastal grasslands. Its peculiar common name is an anglicisation of the scientific one.
Squinancywort is native to Europe, western Asia and parts of North Africa, wherever there is chalk, limestone or coastal sand. It is not rare or threatened, globally.
It is not apparent that squinancywort was ever used to cure quinsy. A few modern writers seem to have made this assumption, presumably based on the name, although Mrs Grieve in the 1920s reported that it was "no longer applied in medicine" and Geoffrey Grigson in 1955 simply stated that it was an old remedy. Researchers of folklore offer no support for such a claim, and botanical names do not necessarily carry a meaning. The name was probably used because of a superficial resemblance between the flowers of squinancywort and those of sword-leaved dogbane, the latter being used in Ancient Rome, apparently, to kill dogs and leopards, and dissolve their lips.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cynanchica pyrenaica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
