May 8, 2016

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).