Scientific name: Vicia sativa L.
Common name: Common Vetch
Description
Habit: A climbing annual, climbing to 1.5 m.
Stems: Trailing or climbing, weak.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnate, with 3-8 pairs of leaflets, ending in a tendril; tendrils unbranched or branched; leaflets broadest near the tip.
Flowers: Dark reddish purple, zygomorphic, solitary or paired in leaf axils, 12-30 mm long, almost stalkless; calyx of fused sepals; petals 5, 2 forming free wings, 2 are fused to form a lower keel and 1 conceals the stamens and carpel; stamens 10, 9 fused to form a tube, the 10th stamen free; carpel 1, style 1.
Fruits: A legume pod, 4-12-seeded, hairless or sparsely hairy, seeds small and smooth.
Habitat: Rocky grassland, sand-dunes, roadsides, cultivated ground.Distribution: Occasional.
Native status: Vicia sativa subsp. nigra is native; V. sativa subsp. sativa is not native.
Of conservation interest: No
Subspecies:
V. sativa subsp. sativa
Vicia sativa subsp. nigra (L.) Ehrh.
Subsp. sativa has flowers 20-30 mm long and pods 40-60 mm long. Subsp. nigra has flowers 12-16 mm long and pods 25-50 mm long and is the more common of the two in this region.