Pea Family [Fabaceae] |
status
flower
inner
morph
petals
type
stem
sex
rarity
(ssp. corbierei) rarity
(ssp. lapponica)
1st June 2017, near Coalport, Shropshire. | Photo: © RWD |
A very long raft of Kidney Vetch. |
1st June 2017, near Coalport, Shropshire. | Photo: © RWD |
With a few interloping white Oxeye Daisy flowers. |
7th June 2005, Strandline, south of Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
A stretch of Vetch. |
7th June 2005, Strandline, south of Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Showing typical vetch-type leaves. |
1st June 2017, near Coalport, Shropshire. | Photo: © RWD |
21st May 2007, Stockton Brook locks, Caldon Canal, Staffordshire. | Photo: © RWD |
A small clump helpfully overhanging the towpath edge. |
8th June 2016, old dunes, Hightown, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The flowers are on the ends of long bare stalks with the odd leaves here and there. Side-branches are thinner and have a pinnate leaf beneath. |
7th June 2005, Strandline, south of Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The florets grow amidst a fluff of fine hairs looking like cotton-wool. |
21st May 2007, Stockton Brook locks, Caldon Canal, Staffordshire. | Photo: © RWD |
The leaves are finely hairy and pointed. |
21st May 2007, Stockton Brook locks, Caldon Canal, Staffordshire. | Photo: © RWD |
Typical pea-like yellow flowers. |
8th June 2007, near Dockray, Cumbria. | Photo: © RWD |
Some plants are very hairy. |
2nd July 2015, dunes, Ainsdale, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The very hairy leaves just below the flower-head are 4- or 5-fingered and close together. The stem is covered in short white appressed hairs. |
14th July 2010, Freshfields Dunes, Sefton Coast, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowers withering, turning to seed. |
8th June 2016, old dunes, Hightown, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
8th June 2016, old dunes, Hightown, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
2nd July 2015, dunes, Ainsdale, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The two keels of the flowers are usually well hidden within the two wings. Spent flowers remain on the flower-head and turn a tan-brown and the wings part slightly to reveal the small keel within (top, middle). |
7th June 2005, Strandline, south of Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
After flowering the seeds are amidst cotton downy fibres. |
29th June 2014, promenade, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
7th June 2005, Strandline, south of Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Kidney Vetch always has a fuzzy look. |
3rd Sept 2005, Helsby Hill, Helsby, Sandstone Trail. | Photo: © RWD |
Going to seed at the end of season. |
16th Aug 2016, Ainsdale, Sefton Coast, Merseyside. | Photo: © RWD |
The long hairs come from a thin white, fabric-like membranous sheath. |
19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The seeds lying on the sand. |
19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
When 'finished' the whole plant dries and goes brown curling itself into a ball which will catch the wind like so-called 'tumbleweed' does in the American deserts. Tumbleweed can be any plant which breaks away from its roots in Autumn. They are rolled along by the wind to places far from where they grew, with some ripe seeds still attached. By this means plants which do this are able to spread far afield. |
19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Some of the roots are still attached on this 'tumbleweed' - which assumes a round cage-like structure. |
21st Sept 2013, Marshside, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
End of season. The basal leaves are often hidden by a mass of flowers, now exposed. |
21st Sept 2013, Marshside, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Basal leaves a glaucous greyish-green is irregularly lobed (sometimes very deeply so - lower left) on a stalk as long as the leaf. |
21st Sept 2013, Marshside, Southport, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Leaves thick and often fleshy. Uppersides matte, leaf stalks and underside hairy (lower leaf). |
The red form |
6th June 2016, coastal fringe, Anglesea, Wales. | Photo: © Sally Tolladay |
The red form of Anthylis vulneria, but, growing on Anglesea. [This is possibly not Anthylis vulneria var. coccinea which Prof. Prof. Clive Stace says grows in West Cornwall and Pembrokeshire?]. There is also a pink form. |
Anthylis vulneria ssp. vulneria var. langei |
13th June 2013, Aberffraw Dunes, Anglesea, Wales. | Photo: © Dawn Nelson |
A pink and pale-yellow form |
9th June 2018, Keen of Hamar, Unst, Shetlands | Photo: © Jill Stevens |
With both pink flowers and pale-yellow flowers. |
9th June 2018, Keen of Hamar, Unst, Shetlands | Photo: © Jill Stevens |
See Keen of Hamar or Serpentinic Rocks for some reasons why plants growing on the Keen of Hamer often differ in form to the same species growing on mainland Britain. |
Distinguishing Feature : A flower-head consisting of a small ping-pong-sized fuzzy balls with numerous small yellow Pea-Family like flowers protruding from what looks like a ball of cotton wool. Very distinctive. A unique feature were it not for the fact that Kidney Vetch exists as 5 sub-species, all looking much the same (see below). Easily confused with : five other sub-species of Kidney Vetches, if you can find them. Sub-species, according to BSBI. Two are in decline and have not been spotted in the UK for decades, the others are still around in some places. Luckily, none of the others are to be found where your Author found the most abundant of Kidney Vetches, the one detailed here. Kidney Vetch is highly variable, with flowers varying from pale to deep yellow, orange or scarlet-red. It is quite possible that the photos from the Caldon Canal represent the sub-species anthyllis vulneraria ssp. polyphylla, but since your Author can find no photographs of this sub-species, it can only be an educated guess based on nothing more than the BSBI distribution map. BSBI distribution of sub-species anthyllis vulneraria ssp. polyphylla. On the other hand, it might not be. There are 5 sub-species of Anthyllis vulneraria :
Update: apparently the authenticity of any sub-species is in doubt taxonomically, there may be just two sub-species, but even those are uncertain. On top of that the ssp. vulneria appears to be sub-divided into differing varieties:
So the Author hopes the Reader will forgive him for not identifying the exact sub-species and variety that the above specimens represent, although it seems a good bet that most un-named photos are of ssp. vulneraria var. pseudovulneria. Maybe... It prefers a dry habitat, on sea cliffs and mountain ledges or open limy grassland. The specimens proliferating at the Southport locality are all on very sandy vegetation-covered soils just above the high-water mark, so it will be salt-tolerant. Almost the whole plant, especially the flowers and flower-heads, are covered in long soft white hairs. This is not a pappus, however, the seeds are not, as far as your Author knows, borne by the wind. Gale Force 10 or Hurricane maybe... Often grows close to the sea above the high-water mark, or on sea cliffs or dry and open chalky grassland. Also on mountain ledges, although your Author has never seen it there, but maybe that is because he tends to avoid dangerously steep places on mountains.
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Anthyllis | vulneraria | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Fabaceae |
Anthyllis (Kidney Vetch) |
Pea Family [Fabaceae] |