COMMON SAND SPURRY, ARENARIA RUBRA As its name suggest, common sand spurry like to grow in sandy soils. There are two types, one which grows inland and one which grows near the coast. It is also known as Spergularia rubra, while the sea-loving one is Spergularia marina. Another common name for the plant is sandwort.
It is common in Europe and North America , and has pink or sometimes white flowers. Its seeds are edible and in times of famine can be roasted or boiled then ground into meal and mixed with wheat flour.
It is a member of the Carophyllaceae family of plants, making it a relation of carnations cloves, soapwort and reetha or soapnut.
It is in this website because it has a reputation for being a lithotropic, meaning that it has been used in traditional medicine for centuries to disperse stones in the kidneys and bladder. It is thought that the infusion of the whole plant, or at least, the aerial parts, relaxes the muscle walls in the urinary tract and increases urine production so that stones are more easily flushed out of the bladder.
It is common in Malta Sicily Algeria Europe , and is related to the sea-marsh sand spurry which is native to North America and which has been used medicinally for the same purposes.
