Common Vetch
Common Vetch in a hedgebank
Common Vetch flowers
A commonly found darker form
Young pods
Leaflets and branched tendrils
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.
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Next page: Creeping Buttercup
Common Vetch in a hedgebank
Common Vetch flowers
A commonly found darker form
Young pods
Leaflets and branched tendrils
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