Long one-sided spikes of blue-violet pea flowers on a grey-green scrambler with many pairs of narrow leaflets and branched tendrils, draped over hedges and banks
Tufted vetch, Vicia cracca.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Tufted vetch
Native · flowers Jun–Aug · hedgerows, rough grassland, scrub and verges
Vicia cracca — Fabaceae
A tall, scrambling perennial of the pea family that drapes itself over hedges, banks and rank grassland, producing long, dense one-sided spikes of blue-violet flowers. It climbs by branched tendrils and is one of the showiest summer flowers of roadside verges. Its many-flowered spikes are the quickest way to tell it from the other vetches.
How to spot them
- ▸Long, dense, one-sided spikes of 10–40 blue-violet to purple pea flowers, each flower turned up into a hood
- ▸Leaves with many pairs (typically 8–12) of narrow, grey-green leaflets arranged symmetrically, ending in a branched tendril
- ▸Scrambling stems up to about 2 m, clinging to other plants and hedges by tendrils
- ▸Seed pods look like tiny pea pods and turn black when ripe
- ▸Compare common vetch (flowers pink-purple, in ones or twos) and bush vetch (fewer flowers, paler, in loose racemes)
How to know it
Also called 'cow vetch' or 'bird vetch', this hedgerow climber can reach around 2 m as it clambers over its neighbours
Tufted vetch (Wildlife Trusts names).
Its dense flower spikes have the individual blooms all facing one side, unlike its short-flowered relatives in the pea family
Tufted vetch.
The tiny pods that follow the flowers resemble miniature peapods and turn black when ripe
Tufted vetch.
A legume of woodland edges, scrub and rough grassland, flowering from June, whose leaves carry many pairs of leaflets and end in curling tendrils
Tufted vetch.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Fabaceae (legumes); a member of the pea and clover family
- •Also known as cow vetch or bird vetch
- •The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust gives a flowering season of June to September (text: June to August) and a height up to 2 m
- •Lives in woodland edges, scrub, coastal margins and grassland, climbing over hedges and banks
- •The seed pods look like very small pea pods and turn black when ripe
- •Like other legumes, it hosts nitrogen-fixing bacteria in root nodules
Drill it — 6 cards
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Sources
- Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust — Tufted vetch