Scientific name: Vicia sepium L.
Common name: Bush Vetch
Description
Habit: A climbing, slightly hairy perennial, climbing to 80 cm.
Stems: Sprawling or climbing.
Leaves: Alternate, pinnate, with 5-9 pairs of leaflets, ending in a branched tendril; leaflets broadest near the base.
Flowers: Dull purple to brown, zygomorphic, 12-15 mm, in groups of 2-6 in nearly stalkless clusters or short racemes; calyx of fused sepals, teeth unequal; 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, 20-35 mm long, 3-10-seeded.
Habitat: Hedges, scrub, wood-margins, rarely in exposed habitats.Distribution: Common on limestone, frequent elsewhere.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No