Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Vicia hirsuta

Common name

Hairy Vetch, Tiny Vetch

Family

Fabaceae

Where found

Pasture, roadsides, and other disturbed sites. Mainly Sydney area and Canberra. Occasionally elsewhere.

Notes

Introduced annual herb to 0.8 m high, upright, trailing, or climbing. Stems angular, hairless to sparsely hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, 2–8 cm long excluding the tendril at the tip, compound, with 8–20 leaflets each 0.5–2.5 cm long 1–4 mm wide, tips squared off to notched, and mucronate, lower surface sparsely hairy. Stipules entire or toothed, without glands. Flowers mostly 2–5 mm long, mauve, pale blue, or pink, pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel. Flower stalks longer than the flowers. Flowers in 2–8 flowered clusters. Flowers mainly Jun.–Feb.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Vicia~hirsuta (accessed 11 February, 2021)