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Bitter-Vetch

Bitter-Vetch

Lathyrus linifolius

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How common: Common

Bitter-vetch is a small, long-lived plant of the pea family found across much of Europe. It blooms in spring with pea-like flowers that shift from reddish purple to blue. You can spot it in light woods, thickets, forest edges and along paths and roads.

Did you know?

  • Its flowers change from reddish purple to blue as they age.
  • It has dark, knobbly root tubers that have been used as emergency food in the past.

About the species

Identification

Low, upright plant 15–35 cm tall. Stem bluish-green, smooth, with thin edges along its sides. Leaves are made of 2–4 pairs of small blunt oval leaflets; there is no tendril (no curling thread-like tip). At the base of each leaf are large leaf-like flaps. Flowers come in a short loose cluster of 2–6 pea-like flowers, about 1–1.5 cm long, opening purple-red and turning blue to grey-violet with age. Later it forms smooth brown pods 2.5–4.5 cm long with several seeds. Can be told from other pea-flowers by the lack of a tendril and the color change. Flowers in Finland in May–June.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

herb-rich forest

Flowering

May–Jun

About the habitat

Grows in dry, grassy woods and rich broadleaf groves, in thickets, forest edges and along roadsides. Mainly in southern Finland (Åland, southwest Finland, Uusimaa and Häme); scattered records elsewhere up to Kuusamo, most common in the southwest.

Sources

Photo: Robert Flogaus-Faust, CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lathyrus linifolius RF.jpg

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Laburnum-Luzula, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39000

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syyl%C3%A4linnunherne

See also