Two Species of the Vetch Wild Flower

Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria)

Colour photograph of the Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) wild flower found on the grassland dunes of Bull Island, Dublin.

By kind permission of Dorothy Forde

Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria)
By kind permission of Dorothy Forde

Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria)

Colour photograph of the Kidney Vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) wild flower found on the grassland dunes of Bull Island, Dublin.

By kind permission of Dorothy Forde

Enlarge image

KIDNEY VETCH (Anthyllis vulneraria)


This sprawling plant with its attractive yellow double flowerhead is widespread in all the dune areas, growing to a height of from 10-50 cm. Its long stems are a silky grey. The pinnate leaves are also silky, each with from 5-15 oval pointed leaflets. The terminal leaflet is always the largest.
 

The dense yellow flowerhead is about 24 mm across and sits in a divided whorl of dark green leaf-like pointed bracts. It is quite usual for one half of the flowerhead to come into blossom while the other half is already going to seed.

Each pea-shaped yellow flower is enclosed at base in a white wooly inflated calyx, which persists after flowering and turns a browny colour. The rounded unopened seed pod holds one or two seeds.
 

Flowers: June-August, but can often be found into October.

Common Vetch (Vicia sativa, ssp nigra)

COMMON VETCH (Vicia sativa, ssp nigra) Common vetch scrambles and climbs in the grasses and hedgerows from 20-100 cm. This speciman was clinging to the tall grasses on the dune tops. Stem and pinnate leaves are softly hairy. Each short-stalked leaf has up to eight pairs of 1-2 cm leaflets, narrow at the stem and tending to be heart-shaped at the tip. Leaves end in a branched tendril. There are one or two almost stalkless pea-shaped reddish-purple flowers in each leaf axil rising up the stem. Leaf-like stipules are at the flower base, usually toothed and having a distinguishing dark spot. Fruit is a long 30-70 mm pod with a beaked tip and depressions between the enclosed seeds. Flowers: May-June

By kind permission of Dorothy Forde

Common Vetch (Vicia sativa, ssp nigra)
By kind permission of Dorothy Forde

Common Vetch (Vicia sativa, ssp nigra)

COMMON VETCH (Vicia sativa, ssp nigra) Common vetch scrambles and climbs in the grasses and hedgerows from 20-100 cm. This speciman was clinging to the tall grasses on the dune tops. Stem and pinnate leaves are softly hairy. Each short-stalked leaf has up to eight pairs of 1-2 cm leaflets, narrow at the stem and tending to be heart-shaped at the tip. Leaves end in a branched tendril. There are one or two almost stalkless pea-shaped reddish-purple flowers in each leaf axil rising up the stem. Leaf-like stipules are at the flower base, usually toothed and having a distinguishing dark spot. Fruit is a long 30-70 mm pod with a beaked tip and depressions between the enclosed seeds. Flowers: May-June

By kind permission of Dorothy Forde

Enlarge image

COMMON VETCH (Vicia sativa, ssp nigra)


Common vetch scrambles and climbs in the grasses and hedgerows from 20-100 cm. This specimen was clinging to the tall grasses on the dune tops.
 

Stem and pinnate leaves are softly hairy. Each short-stalked leaf has up to eight pairs of 1-2 cm leaflets, narrow at the stem and tending to be heart-shaped at the tip. Leaves end in a branched tendril.
 

There are one or two almost stalkless pea-shaped reddish-purple flowers in each leaf axil rising up the stem. Leaf-like stipules are at the flower base, usually toothed and having a distinguishing dark spot.
 

Fruit is a long 30-70 mm pod with a beaked tip and depressions between the enclosed seeds.
 

Flowers: May-June

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