''Vicia sepium'' or bush vetch is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

in the pea and bean family

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

. A nitrogen-fixing, perennial, leguminous climbing plant that grows in hedgerows, grasslands, the edges of woodland, roadsides and rough ground. It occurs in western Europe, Crimea of Ukraine, Russia including Siberia, Caucasus and Central Asia. It can also be found in eastern Canada, north-eastern states of the USA and, where suitable habitat occurs, in Greenland. It is native to, and has been recorded in, almost all parts of

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and associated islands.

Description

A rhizomatous plant. Its climbing habit is enabled by branched tendrils at the end of each leaf stem, which curl around surrounding plants. The stems are not branched, are almost glabrous, sometimes with rare soft hairs, single, mostly 30 to 40 cm long but sometimes as much as 100 cm. The leaves are compound and pinnate with 4 to 8 pairs of opposite leaflets ending in branched tendrils. Leaflets are 20 to 30 mm long, 8 to 10 mm wide, elongated elliptical in form with broad bases and glabrous at both sides. Flower stalks are very short with 2 to 6 almost sessile flowers on each. Flowers are 12 to 15 mm long, reddish-lilac or lilac-blue. Similar in appearance to common vetch (''

Vicia sativa ''Vicia sativa'', known as the common vetch, garden vetch, tare or simply vetch, is a Nitrogen fixation, nitrogen-fixing legume, leguminous plant in the family Fabaceae. It is now naturalised throughout the world occurring on every continent, exc ...

'') but each stem of the latter has more flowers, and bush vetch is usually hairless whereas ''V. sativa'' is slightly hairy. Flowers between May and August, occasionally into November. Mainly cross pollinated by insects. The resultant pods or

legumes Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consu ...

ripen mainly during July to August, are 30 to 40 mm long, 6 to 8 mm wide, elongated, rhomboid and black in colour. The seeds within are black or brown. A good potential forage crop with high nutritional value, characterized by high seed productivity in less favourable years. Can by used for hay or silage, particularly arable silage, from perennial grass-vetch mixtures. Bush vetch supports a variety of generalist legume feeders including beetles, weevils and caterpillars. Bumblebees and honeybees seek out the flowers for their nectar.

Ecology

Hedges and grass thickets.

References

sepium Flora of Europe Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{fabeae-stub