Common name:
Common vetch
Family:
Scientific name:
Vicia sativa
Main flower color:
Range:
All of the UK
Height:
Up to 50 cm
Habitat:
Grassland, verges, roadsides, hedgebanks, scrub
Flowers:
Produced singly or in pairs (occasionally three) at the upper leaf nodes. Flowers are up to 30 mm long, pink to purple, with a hairy, purplish calyx whose teeth are shorter than the tube. The banner petal is often lighter in colour than the other petals
Fruit:
Flattened pods, containing up to 12 seeds; hairy or (less often) hairless; ripening to black
Leaves:
Pinnately divided into between three and eight pairs of broad to narrow, oblong to oblanceolate leaflets, with a branched (less often unbranched) tendril at the tip, and stipules at the base
Season:
April to September
Rarity:
★★★★★
