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Deciduous List |
Pea Family [Fabaceae] |
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3rd May 208, Burtons, East Lancs Rd, Swinton. | Photo: © RWD |
A medium height scrambling perennial, reaching up to 60cm high. |
3rd May 208, Burtons, East Lancs Rd, Swinton. | Photo: © RWD |
Usually so entangled with other plants that it is almost impossible to make out, this specimen is entangled only with itself. With dull-purple flowers and pinnate leaves with distinctively shaped leaflets wider near the base. |
The MACC, Macclesfield, Cheshire. | Photo: © RWD |
With between 2-6 flowers in small congregations and tendrils at the end of each pinnate leaf. |
Prince of Wales, Foxfield, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowers fade to first pale blue and to whitish as they age, especially on plants in the north. |
Prince of Wales, Foxfield, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
As yet un-opened flowers, in the often quoted livery od dull-purple. |
Prince of Wales, Foxfield, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
3rd May 208, Burtons, East Lancs Rd, Swinton. | Photo: © RWD |
Each flower is bi-laterally symmetric (zygomorphic) and in the usual (for a member of the Pea Family) five parts: a large banner (aka 'standard'), two wings and two keels. In places the stems are square with a slight ribs along each corner. Flowers 12-15mm. |
3rd May 208, Burtons, East Lancs Rd, Swinton. | Photo: © RWD |
The petals have darker purple veins. Hairs on the beetroot-coloured sepals. |
Prince of Wales, Foxfield, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
The light-blue flower has faded. The beetroot-coloured sepal tube has sepal teeth of various lengths. |
3rd May 208, Burtons, East Lancs Rd, Swinton. | Photo: © RWD |
Typically shaped leaflets, a well-rounded rhombic broader near the base, with short white hairs and a short stipule at the apex. New, still-folded pinnate leaf upper right. Note that tendrils can also emerge from leaf junctions (lower right) and are more likely to ne branched the lower down they are. |
Prince of Wales, Foxfield, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
Bi-pinnate leaves are alternate on the stem (whereas the leaflets are oppositely-paired). Although most leaflets are characteristically broader nearest the stem, not all are, even on the same plant. Between 5-9 paired leaflets on a stalk, always ending in tendrils rather than a terminal leaflet. |
Prince of Wales, Foxfield, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
Un-typically (but quite common) shaped leaflets. Usually three tendrils at the end of a leaf, but there can be two or four or branched tendrils. |
Prince of Wales, Foxfield, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
Young tendrils, one branched. Leaflets hairy and not yet fully formed. |
The MACC, Macclesfield, Cheshire. | Photo: © RWD |
Usually a pair of flowers/pods in the axil where a leaf bi-pinnate branches off. |
The MACC, Macclesfield, Cheshire. | Photo: © RWD |
The seed pods will turn black when ripe and contain between 3 to 10 seeds. |
Easily mis-identified as : Spring Vetch (Vicia lathyroides) which has similarly-coloured but smaller flowers (5-9mm) and only 2-4 pairs of leaflets which grows on sandy turfs near the sea. Like Bush Vetch it also has black seed pods.
Some similarities to :
Slight resemblance to :
No relation to : a Neither a bush nor a shrub, Bush Vetch has a bushy sprawling character that scrambles between other low plants. The stems lack wings. Flowers dull-purple (which can vary from purple and fade to pale blue). The leaves are pinnate, with between 5-9 paired leaflets, the whole leaf terminated by a tendrils which can be branched, but are more likely to be branched nearer the base of the plant. Distinctive rhomboid-shaped paired leaflets where the widest part is nearest the base (although not all leaves conform, especially if they have just un-folded). Stems can appear square in places. Grows in hedges, scrub, woodland edges and grassy places; only rarely on dunes but then not in the North West.
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Vicia | sepium | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Fabaceae |
Vicia (Vetches) |
Pea Family [Fabaceae] |