Bush vetch
Vicia sepium
Family · Fabaceae · Irritating
The vetch of northern wood edges and hedgerows, with bluish purple flowers in tight little groups at the leaf axils and two dark spots on the stipules, like two eyes.
Oak woods · Uplands · Roadsides and waste ground · Fields and pasture
Also known ashedge vetch
How to tell it
A climbing plant with leaves of five to nine pairs of oval leaflets and a branched tendril at the tip. Bluish purple or lilac flowers twelve to fifteen millimetres, in tight groups of two to six, almost stalkless, at the axil. On the stipules, next to the stem, there is often a dark spot with nectaries.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
Quality forage in mountain meadows. The dark spots on the stipules are nectaries outside the flower, feeding ants in exchange for protection, and it is one of the few European plants where this is easily seen.