Dwarf Spurge

Dwarf Spurge (Euphorbia exigua) is the smallest Spurge in Dordogne. Some full-grown plants are not bigger than two centimeters. It grows in calcareous meadows, especially in spots where vegetation is sparse and the soil is visible.

The species is rather diverse. Often the plants are greyish green, but sometimes it is more yellowish green with a reddish stem, as here. This exemplar is really big, it looms large above the tiny 'Controversial Sandworts' (Arenaria controversa) around it.

This year it is abundant, maybe because of the rain. Here some individuals from a carpet of thousands, each one with its flower head.

Common Vetch

See here the Common Vetch (Vicia segetalis). It is not difficult at all to find it, even if it is not that common. In many grassy spots its butterfly-like flowers abound. It grows also in cereal fields. Many grasslands in Perigord in former times were cereal fields, so maybe that is an explanation.

Every leaf is divided in a dozen or so of smaller folioles and ends in a twisted tendril. The plant climbs in grass stems and other stalks and attaches itself with those tendrils

On the left in the photograph you see a vetch with smaller and narrower folioles, this is another species and it is called Hairy Tare (Vicia hirsuta).