Vicia Cracca, Tufted Vetch



Common name:
Tufted vetch
Family:
Scientific name:
Vicia cracca
Main flower color:
Range:
All of the UK
Height:
Up to 2 m
Habitat:
Grassland, hedgebanks, riverbanks, woodland margins
Flowers:
Dense, vertical clusters of up to 40 heads extending up to 10 cm, on stalks of a similar length. Flowers are pendent, and one-sided, purple, withering to blue. The calyx teeth are unequal in size; one is about the same length as the tube, the others much shorter
Fruit:
Hairless, brownish pods, up to 25 mm long
Leaves:
Pinnately divided into between eight and 13 pairs of narrow, downy, oblong leaflets, terminating in a branched tendril
Season:
June to August
Rarity:
★★★★