==Uses==
==Uses==
It is not apparent that squinancywort has actually been used to cure quinsy. [[Maud Grieve|Mrs Grieve]] claimed that it once had been, but was “no longer” applied in medicine, whereas [[Nicholas Culpeper|Culpeper]], for example, recommended cudweed, hyssop, orpine, ragwort or blackberry, rather than squinancywort. In Sweden, the roots have been used as a red dyeing agent.<ref name=Grieve>{{cite book |last1=Grieve |first1=Maud |title=A Modern Herbal |year=1931 |publisher=Dover Publications Inc. |location=New York |isbn=0-486-22798-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Culpeper |first1=Nicholas |title=The Complete Herbal |date=1850 |publisher=Thomas Kelly |location=London |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/49513}}</ref>
In Sweden, the roots have been used as a red dyeing agent.<ref>{{cite book|title=A new and complete dictionary of arts and sciences: including the latest improvement and discovery and the present states of every branch of human knowledge, Volume 1 |url={{Google books|njlOAAAAYAAJ&pg|A new and complete dictionary of arts and sciences: including the latest improvement and discovery and the present states of every branch of human knowledge, Volume 1 |page=|plainurl=yes}}|page=32 (As section)}}</ref>
==References==
==References==
Species of plant
| Squinancywort | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Gentianales |
| Family: | Rubiaceae |
| Genus: | Cynanchica |
| Species: |
C. pyrenaica |
| Binomial name | |
| Cynanchica pyrenaica
(L.) P. Caputo & Del Guacchio
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| Synonyms | |
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List
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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 grassland, often in mountain pastures. Its curious name is derived from a resemblance between the pink and white flowers and the appearance of a sore throat in the condition popularly known as quinsy.
Squinancywort is a delicate, prostrate to ascending herbaceous perennial plant with weak stems that sprawl across the ground or scramble amongst other vegetation. Plants are rhizomatous and typically form a loose patch up to 40 cm across (exceptionally up to 1 m), interspersed with other plants and often rather concealed within a grassland. The green, much-branched stems are square in section with winged corners, roughly hairy below and glabrous towards the tips.
The lower leaves are elliptical and the upper ones narrow and linear, entire (i.e. unlobed and untoothed) and tapered towards a pointed tip. They appear to grow in whorls of 4 although, technically, at each node there are 2 leaves about 20 mm long, and 2-4 leaf-like stipules, with the stipules often much shorter than the leaves. They are hairless.
The inflorescences arise in the leaf axils and at the tips of the stems, in few-flowered cymes. The individual flowers are small, 3-4 mm across, and are typically white with a pink centre and often a pattern of darker pink veins on the corolla lobes. Each flower is a tube about 5 mm long with 4-5 lobes at the mouth. The calyx is minute, and also 4-lobed. Within each bisexual flower there are 4 stamens and one style, with an inferior ovary. The fruits are warty nutlets.[1][2]
The original name (basionym) of this species is Asperula cynanchica, given by Linnaeus in Species Plantarum, 1753, p. 104.[3] He, in turn, took the name from earlier publications such as Adrianus van Royan’s Florae Leydensis Prodromus of 1740 (where it is “Asperula folii linearibus quaternis, summis oppositis”) and Bauhin’s Pinax theatri botanici of 1623 (“Rubia cynanchica”). This name was retained until 2000, by which time numerous DNA studies had revealed that the genus was polyphyletic. In order to conserve the evolutionary link between the species and their names, the genus Cynanchica was created.[4][5]
Squinancy and Cynanchica are both ultimately derived from the ancient Greek κυνάγχη (kunánkhē) which means a dog’s collar or (by analogy) a painful sore throat. Squinancywort is therefore the herb that cures peritonsillar abscess or tonsillitis, owing a supposition derived by the doctrine of signatures from the resemblance between the pink and white throat of the corolla and the medical condition.
There are currently four accepted subspecies:
- Cynanchica pyrenaica subsp. cynanchica (L.) P. Caputo & Del Guacchio. This is the common plant, found throughout the range. It is recognised by the corolla tube being up to twice as long as the lobes.
- Cynanchica pyrenaica subsp. neglecta (Guss.) P. Caputo & Del Guacchio, which occurs only in Italy.
- Cynanchica pyrenaica subsp. occidentalis (Rouy) P. Caputo & Del Guacchio, which is found on dunes in south Wales, western Ireland and NW Spain. It has orange (not brown) rhizomes and a corolla tube as long as the lobes.
- Cynanchica pyrenaica subsp. pyrenaica, from which the type is taken. It is restricted to the Pyrenees and mountains of northern Spain.[4][1]
There are no recorded hybrids of squinancywort.[6]
Habitat and Ecology
[edit]
Squinancywort grows in short, species-rich grassland established over chalk or limestone, in CG2 Festuca ovina – Avenula pratensis grassland in Britain. It is also found on dunes in south Wales. It often found on anthills. Under the Universal adaptive strategy theory, it is a strongly stress-tolerant plant, albeit more of a ruderal when on sand. Some authorities consider the latter plants a separate subspecies, ssp. occidentalis. Its environmental preferences are reflected in its high Ellenberg-type indicator values for light (7) and PH (8), meaning it favours full sunlight, and low values for moisture (3), nutrients (2) and salt (0).[1][7][8]
It is not apparent that squinancywort has actually been used to cure quinsy. Mrs Grieve claimed that it once had been, but was “no longer” applied in medicine, whereas Culpeper, for example, recommended cudweed, hyssop, orpine, ragwort or blackberry, rather than squinancywort. In Sweden, the roots have been used as a red dyeing agent.[9][10]
- ^ a b c Sell, Peter; Murrell, Gina (2006). Flora of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 4 Campanulaceae – Asteraceae. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Stace, C.A. (2019). New Flora of the British Isles (4th ed.). Middlewood Green: C & M Floristics. ISBN 978-1-5272-2630-2.
- ^ Linné, Carl von; Linné, Carl von (1753). Species plantarum: exhibentes plantas rite cognitas ad genera relatas, cum diferentiis specificis, nominibus trivialibus, synonymis selectis, locis natalibus, secundum systema sexuale digestas. Vol. t.1 (1753). Berlin: Junk.
- ^ a b “Cynanchica pyrenaica (L.) P.Caputo & Del Guacchio | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science”. Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 2025-11-29.
- ^ Del Guacchio, Emanuele; Caputo, Paolo (2020-09-02). “Splitting Asperula (Rubiaceae): a proposal for consistency purposes within sections Cynanchicae, Thliphthisa and Hexaphylla”. Plant Biosystems – An International Journal Dealing with all Aspects of Plant Biology. 154 (5): 766–782. doi:10.1080/11263504.2020.1804008. ISSN 1126-3504.
- ^ Stace, C.A. (1975). Hybridization and the Flora of the British Isles. London: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-661650-7.
- ^ Hill, M.O.; Preston, C.D.; Roy, D.B. “PLANTATT – Attributes of British and Irish Plants – Spreadsheet”. UK Biological Records Centre.
- ^ Tichý, Lubomír; Axmanová, Irena; Dengler, Jürgen; Guarino, Riccardo; Jansen, Florian; Midolo, Gabriele; Nobis, Michael P.; Van Meerbeek, Koenraad; Aćić, Svetlana; Attorre, Fabio; Bergmeier, Erwin; Biurrun, Idoia; Bonari, Gianmaria; Bruelheide, Helge; Campos, Juan Antonio (2023). “Ellenberg-type indicator values for European vascular plant species”. Journal of Vegetation Science. 34 (1) e13168. doi:10.1111/jvs.13168. ISSN 1100-9233.
- ^ Grieve, Maud (1931). A Modern Herbal. New York: Dover Publications Inc. ISBN 0-486-22798-7.
- ^ Culpeper, Nicholas (1850). The Complete Herbal. London: Thomas Kelly.
