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Meadow Vetchling

Meadow Vetchling

Lathyrus pratensis

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How common: Very common

Meadow vetchling is a slender, yellow-flowered climbing plant in the pea family. It weaves through grasses using curling tendrils and can form loose tangles. You can spot it in open meadows, field edges and sunny roadsides across much of Europe and western Asia, and it has been introduced to North America.

Did you know?

  • Its seed pods turn black as they ripen.
  • It climbs by curling tendrils and often grows tangled with tufted vetch.

About the species

Identification

Slender, climbing plant 25–60 cm tall with a four-angled, usually slightly hairy stem. Each leaf has two narrow, pointed leaf parts and ends in a curling tendril; at the base are big, leaf-like flaps. Flower clusters on long stalks carry 5–12 bright yellow, pea-like flowers. After flowering, flat pods 2–4 cm long ripen dark brown to black. Tell it from bird’s-foot trefoil by its climbing habit and two-part leaves (trefoil is low, lacks tendrils, and has five small leaf parts). Flowers in Finland from June to August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

meadow

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Sunny, open places such as meadows, verges, hayfields, forest edges, grassy woods and shores. Common across the country, rare in Lapland.

Sources

Photo: Andreas Eichler, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2014.08.24.-02-See Pfingstberg Mannheim-Rheinau--Wiesen-Platterbse.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki leviäimet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39002

Text: Pinkka: Laaja maatalouslajintuntemus 4 op - Koppisiemeniset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39002

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niittyn%C3%A4tkelm%C3%A4

See also