Wednesday 18 May 2022

COMMON VETCH

Common Vetch (Vicia sativa) is one of the first of the pea family to flower.  The purply-pink flowers are in pairs at the base of the leaves.  The leaves are pinnate with up to eight pairs of leaflets (six pairs in this specimen).  Each leaflet may be notched at the tip, with a little whisker.  In the image below the shape of the leaflets is clear although some of them have been nibbled a bit by weevils.

The plant scrambles up other plants using the tendrils at the end of each leaf to grip.

As you can see, the tendrils are branched, with up to five little wires waiting to spiral round whatever they touch.






No comments:

Post a Comment

I just love getting comments so go ahead.