Crown Vetch

(Coronilla varia)

 

   

 

Color Photograph: Copyright Nearctica.com, Inc.

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Crown Vetch (Coronilla varia L.)

Alien: Native of Europe.

Identification: A creeping vine. Flowers with upper petals (standard) pink to violet, lower petals white. Flowers arranged in a loose cloverlike cluster. Seedpods constricted in the middle and with a long, tapering tip. Leaves divided into several pairs of opposite leaflets and a terminal leaflet, not tendril.

Distribution: Throughout most of North America.

Habitat: Crown Vetch is widely planted as a stabilizing plant along highway margins. The plant has escaped to fields and other roadsides.

Flowering period: June to August.

Similar Species: The absence of a terminal tendril on the leaves will separate Crown Vetch from species of the genera Vicia and Lathyrus. The cloverlike arrangement of the flowers is distinctive.

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