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.

For a map see the National Biodiversity Network Gateway

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