Bush vetch

Bush vetch (Vicia sepium) is common throughout the British Isles, growing in grassy places, as a garden weed and in hedges. It is a sprawling plant that covers other plants and twines its tendrils around them. 

There are around 150 species of vetch, and they include the highly cultivated Vicia faba, otherwise known as the broad bean. There is evidence that cultivated vetches were planted from Iron Age times. 

However, bush vetch is of no use to humans other than as fodder for animals. 

Bush vetch can climb up to 40 inches (100 cms) off the ground. Each leaf has five to nine pairs of leaflets and a branching tendril. The short-stalked flowerhead has up to six blooms, which appear from May to August. The sepals are joined to form a tube. The nectar is particularly attractive to bumblebees. The seeds form in pods which go black when the seeds are ripe.

© John Welford

Purple milk-vetch

Purple milk-vetch (Astragalus danicus) is found throughout Europe from the Alps to Russia, but in Britain it is mostly found on the eastern side of the country, from the Chilterns to Scotland. It is especially common in the Breckland area of Norfolk. 

The habitat of purple milk-vetch is chalk and limestone soils, and also sandy areas including dunes.

The “milk” element of the name comes from the old belief that eating the plant increased the milk yield of goats, although there is no real evidence to support this notion. The plant has no food value to humans.

Purple milk-vetch has upright stems and many leaflets that are covered with soft whitish hairs. The plant grows up to 14 inches (36 cms) high.

Several purplish flowers are carried on each stem, well above the leaves, the flowers looking at first sight like those of clover. Sepals are joined at the base in a tube covered with short blackish hairs. 

The plant flowers from May to July, after which seed pods form that contain six or seven seeds.

© John Welford