Thorny restharrow

Ononis spinosa, the spiny restharrow, is a low, woody-based perennial subshrub of the bean family, 20 to 70 cm tall, with stiff, often sprawling stems that are usually armed with sharp spines and bear a line or two of hairs. The leaves are trifoliate (the upper ones sometimes simple), with small, oval, toothed, slightly sticky and aromatic leaflets. The pea-like flowers are pink to purplish-rose, borne singly or in pairs in the upper leaf axils, forming a leafy spike. The fruit is a short, hairy pod containing a few seeds. The plant has a long, tough, deeply penetrating taproot, which in former times caught and 'arrested' the harrow in tilled fields, giving the plant its name. Native to Europe, North Africa, and western Asia, it grows on dry grassland, banks, roadsides, and calcareous slopes.