Vicia americana ssp. americana

Native

Widespread

Moist. Woods, meadows.

June to August

Purple to blue

Trailing, up to 40″ long.

This is a trailing or climbing perennial forb.

The stems recline on the ground. They extend 16″ to 40″. They are hairless and often zigzagged.

The leaves are alternate and pinnately divided into 4 to 8 pairs of leaflets. Each leaf has a tendril in place of a terminal leaflet and an even total number of leaflets. The tendril has several branches. There are a pair of conspicuous, leaf-like stipules at the base of each leaf stalk. The stipules are sharply toothed, about ⅛″ long, and about 7 ⁄16″ wide.

The leaflets are egg-shaped or elliptic, ⅜″ to 1″ long, and 3 ⁄16″ to ½″ wide. They are thin, not stiff. The leaf tips are blunt or broadly rounded and tipped with a short, sharp, abrupt point. There are numerous lateral veins leaving the midrib at an angle of about 45°, branching, and then rejoining and forming an intertwining network before reaching the margin. The upper and lower surfaces of the leaflet blade are hairless or sparsely covered with appressed hairs. The margins are untoothed.

The inflorescence is a loose, unbranched cluster (raceme) of 2 to 9 short-stalked flowers. The raceme is uncrowded and more or less one-sided. It is on a stalk rising from a leaf axil. The stalk is shorter than the subtending leaf.

The flowers are ⅝″ to 11 ⁄16″ long. There are 5 sepals fused for most of their length into a hairy, ¼″ to 5 ⁄16″ long, cylinder-shaped calyx tube. The 5 petals are purple to blue and form a butterfly-like corolla, typical of plants in the Pea family. They are organized into a banner petal at the top, two lateral wing petals, and between the wings two petals fused into a keel. The banner is notched at the tip.

The fruit is a pod, about 1″ long, containing 8 to 14 seeds.

Common vetch (Vicia sativa) leaflets are indented at the tip. The flowers appear singly or in pairs from the leaf axils.

Cow vetch (Vicia cracca ssp. cracca) flowers are borne in a crowded, one-sided spike.

Winter vetch (Vicia villosa) flowers are borne in a crowded, one-sided spike.

Mat vetch (Vicia americana ssp. minor) leaflets are thick, narrowly linear, and densely hairy. They have prominent, unbranched lateral veins that leave the midrib at a narrow angle.