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 the author found the most abundant of Kidney Vetches, the one detailed here.

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 there are another 5 sub-species, probably all looking much the same.

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 the author can find no photographs of this sub-species, it can only be an educated guess based on nothing more than the BSBI distribution of sub-species anthyllis vulneraria ssp polyphylla. On the other hand, it might not be.

It prefers a dry habitat, on sea cliffs and mountain ledges or open limey 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.

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