Seasonal Wild Flowers

Common Vetch

Vicia sativa

Garden Vetch, Vetch

Fabaceae

May to September

It is found throughout the country but is slightly less

common in the North.

See the BSBI distribution map for Common Vetch

It grows in grassy hedgebanks and grassy waste

places.

Common Vetch is a nitrogen-fixing, native, annual

herb, scrambling over other plants.

Flowers are purple with the standard paler than the wings.

They are up to 25mm across and either solitary or in pairs.

Leaves have 3 to 8 pairs of leaflets and the tendrils are

branched.

Mature pods are black or brown.

Three are 3 subspecies found in the UK(subsp. nigra,

subsp. segetalis and subsp. sativa).

It used to be a fodder crop, and some populations are

naturalised escapes.

Common Vetch in a hedgebank

Common Vetch flowers

A commonly found darker form

Young pods

Leaflets and branched tendrils