Cochlearia

15 species are accepted. • Cochlearia aestuaria – Estuarine scurvy-grass • Cochlearia anglica – English scurvy-grass • Cochlearia bavarica • Cochlearia borzaeana • Cochlearia danica – Early or Danish scurvy-grass • Cochlearia groenlandica – Greenland scurvy-grass • Cochlearia gurulkanii • Cochlearia × hollandica • Cochlearia micacea • Cochlearia officinalis – Common scurvy-grass • Cochlearia polonica • Cochlearia pyrenaica • Cochlearia scotica • Cochlearia sessilifolia – Sessile-leaved or Alaskan scurvy-grass • Cochlearia tatrae • Cochlearia tridactylites – Three-fingered scurvy-grass Two species formerly included in the genus Cochlearia are now usually treated in separate genera: • Horseradish Armoracia rusticana (previously Cochlearia armoracia) • Wasabi Wasabia japonica (previously Cochlearia wasabi) Cook's scurvy grass, Lepidium oleraceum, was used by James Cook to prevent scurvy, but is now almost extinct. ==History and uses==

Scurvy-grass is edible raw and cooked, with a flavour similar to cress. The leaves are rich in vitamin C, which cures scurvy, a deficiency disease resulting from a lack of fresh vegetables in the diet. The plant was frequently eaten in the past by sailors suffering from scurvy after returning from long voyages. and apparently brought scurvy-grass "into great repute" as a remedy. According to the Royal Society, the book contains "not only a description of the several kinds of this plant, with its several names, place, and time of growth, temperature and general vertues, but also an enumeration of the uses, medicinal vertues and manner of applying each part of this plant." In 1857, Cochlearia officinalis was described in The Elements of Materia Medica and Therapeutics as "A gentle stimulant, aperient, and diuretic. It has long been esteemed as an antiscorbutic. It has also been used in visceral obstructions. It is occasionally eaten with bread and butter, like the water-cress." The leaves, which have a strong acrid, bitter, or peppery taste similar to the related horseradish and watercress, are also sometimes used in salads or eaten with bread and butter. Scurvy-grass sorrel (Oxalis enneaphylla) is an unrelated plant from southern South America and the Falkland Islands that was also used to treat scurvy. ==Scurvy-grass and roads==

The advent of modern fast roads treated with salt in winter for ice clearance has resulted in the colonisation by scurvy-grass of many inland areas where it formerly did not occur. The scurvy-grass seeds become trapped on car wheels, transported often for a considerable distance, and then washed off, to grow in the salt-rich soil at the side of the road where other plants cannot survive. Image:scurvygras.jpg|Cochlearia officinalis on Bear Island, Norway Image:Cochlearia_officinalis_-_Köhler–s_Medizinal-Pflanzen-186.jpg|19th century illustration of Cochlearia officinalis File:B1041668 007 Scurvy-grass.tif | "Scurvy-grass" from The Book of Health, 1898, by Henry Munson Lyman ==References==