Scientific name: Anthyllis vulneraria L.
Common name: Kidney Vetch
Description
Habit: A tufted perennial covered with silky hairs, to 60 cm.
Stems: Erect to trailing, spreading.
Leaves: With small stipules; pinnate, with 7-13 entire, lanceolate leaflets, terminal one the largest, lower leaves with large terminal leaflet and 0-3 pairs of small lateral leaflets.
Flowers: Yellow, occasionally pink/red, zygomorphic, hermaphrodite, 12-15 mm across, stalkless in groups in usually paired spherical heads up to 4 cm across; calyx of fused sepals inflated, contracted at the mouth, densely white-hairy; petals 5, forming 2 free wings, 2 are fused to form a lower keel and 1 conceals the stamens and carpel; stamens 10, 9 fused and 1 loosely fused with the others; carpel 1, style 1.
Fruits: A legume pod, short, 1-seeded, concealed within calyx.
Habitat: Limestone pavement, dry pastures, sand-dunes, maritime rocks and cliffs.
Distribution: Frequent and locally abundant on limestone and near the sea, very rare elsewhere.
Native status: Native
Of conservation interest: No
Subspecies:
Anthyllis vuleraria subsp. vulneraria
A. vuleraria subsp. lapponica (Hyl.) Jalas.
Subsp. vuleraria has fewer and unequal leaflets in the upper leaves.