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