V is for vetches

27 Friday Dec 2024

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British wildflowers, Bush vetch, Common vetch, Crown vetch, Grass vetchling, Hairy tare, Meadow vetchling, Tufted vetch, Vetches, vetchlings

Wildflowers haven’t yet featured in this countdown so today’s post seeks to remedy that omission (you might think the letter W would be the obvious choice but that letter is already allocated to one of this year’s star species – can you guess which?). So, as these gorgeous members of the pea family are some of my favourite wildflowers, this year V is for vetch – and vetchling, and also Hairy tare as it’s one of the Vicia species.

241227 v is for vetch common

Common vetch (Vicia sativa)

241227 v is for vetch bush and crown

Bush vetch (Vicia sepium), left, and Crown vetch (Securigera varia), right

241227 v is for vetch tufted

Tufted vetch (Vicia cracca)

241227 v is for vetch meadow vetchling and hairy tare

Meadow vetching (Lathyrus pratensis), left, and Hairy tare (Vicia hirsuta), right

241227 v is for vetch grass vetchling

And, finally, my absolute favourite Grass vetchling (Lathyrus nissolia)

Just peas, no carrots

19 Sunday May 2024

Posted by sconzani in flowers, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Black medick, British wildflowers, Broom, Bush vetch, Common bird's-foot trefoil, Common vetch, gorse, Grass vetchling, Pea family, red clover, Spotted medick, White clover

The challenge for the regular Sunday night 8-9pm Wildflower Hour (#WildflowerHour on most social media platforms) this week was to find flowering members of the carrot and pea families (#CarrotsAndPeas). I decided, for no particular reason, to stick with the peas, the Leguminosae, and here they are …

240519 birdsfoot trefoil and vetchling grass

Common bird’s-foot trefoil and Grass vetchling

240519 broom and gorse

Broom and Gorse

240519 clover red and white

Red and White clover

240519 medick black and spotted

Black and Spotted medick. These look very similar so you need to check the leaves: Spotted medick has splotches on its leaves, while the leaves of Black medick have no marks but have tiny points at their ends.

240519 vetch bush and common

Bush vetch (top) and Common vetch (bottom). I’m a bit confused about the white-flowered vetch in the centre – is it Bush or is it Common? I’ll ask the experts on tonight’s Wildflower Hour.

The Brimstone, the vetch and the ants

20 Friday May 2022

Posted by sconzani in flowers, insects, wildflowers

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

ants, ants nectaring on EFNs, Brimstone, Common vetch, EFNs, extrafloral nectaries, Grass vetchling, nectar sources on plants, Vetches, Vicia species

Two for the price of one today: a lovely female Brimstone butterfly, which I was really happy to catch feeding on Common vetch.

220520 vetch and ants (1)

But, lurking beneath the flower, you may be able to spot a small creature. It’s an ant and, if you’ve ever looked closely at the flowers of any of the vetch family (Common, Bush, Tufted, and the vetchlings), you may have noticed they all prove attractive to ants.

220520 vetch and ants (2)

I’ve only recently discovered the reason for this: these plants all have extrafloral nectaries (EFNs), tiny glands on the stems and other areas of a plant, where nectar is secreted. The vetches aren’t the only plants to have these EFNs – according to a report on the University of Florida website (and there are many other scientific papers online, if this subject intrigues you), EFNs have been found in over 2000 plant species. Scientists don’t seem completely sure why plants ‘feed’ ants in this way, though it may be a means of rewarding ant species for their protection against the plant-munching larvae of other insect species.

New and noticed

02 Sunday May 2021

Posted by sconzani in nature, spring, wildflowers

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British wildflowers, Bugle, Cleavers, Common vetch, Spring colour, spring wildflowers, Wood spurge, Woodruff

More luscious wildflowers have begun blooming in recent days. Here are some I’ve noticed:

210502 bugle (1)

As I witnessed when taking these photos, bumblebees adore Bugle (Ajuga reptans). I can’t think of a better reason to plant some in your own wildflower garden.

210502 common vetch

You can tell just by looking at its flower shape that Common vetch (Vicia sativa) is a member of the pea family. Apparently, in ancient times, people cultivated this plant and ate its seed pods, just as we do today with peas and beans.

210502 cleavers

I’ll bet you all have a bunch of names for this plant, Cleavers (Galium aparine). Sticky Willy is a favourite.

210502 woodruff

After I recognised the leaves of this plant, I revisited the spot in my local woodland each week until, finally, the beautiful flowers began to open. This is the sweet-smelling Woodruff (Galium odoratum).

210502 wood spurge

This plant was growing quite close to where I found the Woodruff and was a first sighting for me. Gardeners will, I’m sure, recognise it as a Euphorbia because Wood spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides) is the ancestor of today’s popular garden varieties of Spurge.

117/366 It’s Pea time

26 Sunday Apr 2020

Posted by sconzani in nature, spring, wildflowers

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British wildflowers, Bush vetch, Common bird's foot trefoil, Common vetch, Grass vetchling, Red campion, Spring colour, spring wildflowers

You know the summer’s not far away when members of the extensive Pea family start to flower and, during this week’s exercise walks, I’ve spotted four Pea species newly come in to flower. The first were three of the vetches …

200426 Bush vetch

Bush vetch (Vicia sepium)

Common vetch (Vicia sativa) … and friends.

200426 Grass vetchling

Grass vetchling (Lathyrus nissolia)

200426 bird's-foot trefoil

And, also, one of my all-time favourites – possibly because it’s also a favourite with a lot of the butterflies and day-flying moths I adore so much, Common bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus).

200426 Red campion

Oh, and this week’s new blooms also included one not-a-pea wildflower, the always lovely Red campion (Silene dioica).

A wildflower catch-up

25 Friday May 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, nature, wildflowers

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

British wildflowers, Bush vetch, Common vetch, Herb Bennet, Oxeye daisy, Ragged robin, Russian comfrey, Wood avens

Time to catch up on which wildflowers are currently flowering in the waysides …

180525 Bush vetch

I often see the mottled purplish flowers of Bush vetch (Vicia sepium) in the wonderfully scruffy areas on the edges of roads and paths.

180525 Common vetch

Often accompanying its Bush cousin, the Common vetch (Vicia sativa) has a delicate pink, often single flower, very much like the popular garden plant the Sweet pea, to which it is also related.

180525 Oxeye daisy

There’s something innately cheerful about the Oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare), which also goes by the common names of Dog daisy, Horse daisy, Moon daisy and Moonpenny (I almost typed Moneypenny!).

180525 Ragged-robin

The perfectly named Ragged-Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) likes to have its feet in damp places so look for it in marshy areas, near drains and streams.

180525 Russian Comfrey

Given the deep purple of its flowers, I think this might be Russian comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum), a hybrid of Common and Creeping comfrey. I found it growing well in a coastal location near where I live.

180525 Wood avens

Though officially known as Wood avens (Geum urbanum) I always think of this plant as Herb Bennet, which, according to Flora Britannica, is a corruption of the medieval Latin herba benedicta, meaning the blessed herb. Its roots were widely used in herbal medicine.

Botanising: A walk above Brynna

28 Sunday May 2017

Posted by sconzani in nature, plants, wildflowers

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

botany mentee, British flora, Bush vetch, Common vetch, Field horsetail, Glamorgan Botany Group, Mouse-ear hawkweed, Welsh poppy, Zigzag clover

Last weekend I enjoyed another full day’s walk with the Glamorgan Botany Group in the hills and vales above Brynna, in south Wales, and, though I am the first to admit that I came home with more photos of insects than plants, I am learning. It’s just that, for someone who wasn’t brought up in Britain and so didn’t learn from an early age the names of even the most common wildflowers, there’s a huge amount to take in.

170528 Brynna

So, what have I learnt? I can now tell the difference between Common vetch (Vicia sativa), on the left, and Bush vetch (Vicia sepium), on the right below.

I know this is Field horsetail (Equisetum arvense) because the first joints of the leaves (which form a skirt around the stem when you break them off) are longer than the stem section (the little dark v-shaped marks on the stem in this photo).

170528 1 Field horsetail

Though the two species are very similar, I know this is not Red clover (Trifolium pratense) but rather Zigzag clover (Trifolium medium) partly because the white marks on its leaves are not as obvious but, most definitively, because at the widest part of the leaf the veins meet the edge at a 90 degree angle.

I know that the plant on the left is Mouse-ear hawkweed (Hieracium pilosella) and that beautiful flower on the right is my very first Welsh poppy (Meconopsis cambrica) growing in the wild!