Tufted Vetch
Scientific name: Vicia cracca
Family: Fabaceae
Other common names; cow vetch, bird vetch
Flowering time: July to September
Height: to 130cm
Growing conditions: relatively fertile dry to moist soils
Nectar source for: variety of bees
Description
Tufted Vetch is a long-lived perennial plant which scrambles and grows around other vegetation. It has a number of stems coming off the main stem either with a dozen pairs of leaves or a very beautiful row of flowers. It grows in the meadow but also climbs up the hawthorn on the track around the oxbow. The seed pods of Tufted vetch look like very small peapods and turn black when they are ripe.
Cooked, it was often used by new mothers to boost milk production for their babies.
Family: Fabaceae
Other common names; cow vetch, bird vetch
Flowering time: July to September
Height: to 130cm
Growing conditions: relatively fertile dry to moist soils
Nectar source for: variety of bees
Description
Tufted Vetch is a long-lived perennial plant which scrambles and grows around other vegetation. It has a number of stems coming off the main stem either with a dozen pairs of leaves or a very beautiful row of flowers. It grows in the meadow but also climbs up the hawthorn on the track around the oxbow. The seed pods of Tufted vetch look like very small peapods and turn black when they are ripe.
Cooked, it was often used by new mothers to boost milk production for their babies.