Vicia villosa Roth

Hairy vetch, winter vetch

Similar species

	You are here Vicia villosa	Vicia cracca
Common Name	hairy vetch	cow vetch
Plant	Up to 3′ (91 cm), hairy, with round, ridged stems that have white hairs. Plants are heavily branched, and equipped with tendrils to clamber over other plants.	Up to 6½′ (2 m), clambering vinelike over other plants, though they are usually lower. They have smooth or slightly hairy stems. Small tendrils wrap themselves around available supports, sometimes choking other plants.
Leaves	Stipules, little hairy projections at leaf bases, are less than ¼″ (6.3 mm) long. Leaves are compound, even pinnate, alternate, up to 10″ (25 cm) × 2″ (5 cm) Leaflets occur in groups of 8-20, and are narrowly oval or linear, hairy, and up to 1″ (2.5 cm) × ¼″ (6.3 mm).	Stipules, narrow leafy pointed appendages at leaf bases, are ¼–5/16″ (6.3–8.4 mm) long. Leaves are 1–3″ (3–8 cm) long, pinnate, with 5-12 pairs of leaflets. Leaflets are linear, with needlelike tips, ⅛–⅜″ (5–10 mm) long.
Flowers	In groups of 5-30, densely packed into a one-sided raceme. Individual flowers are ½–¾″ (1.3–1.9 cm) long, with bilateral symmetry. The flowers are tubular, bi-colored—pink to blue-purple and white, with 5 petals. The tube-shaped calyx is swollen at its base, and hairy; flower stalks are also hairy. Flowers Apr-Oct.	One-sided racemes with curled tips and densely spaced purple-blue to reddish-purple flowers. They appear from May-Aug.
Fruit	Fruits resemble small pea pods, ¾–1¾″ (2–5 cm) in length. Each pod contains 2-3 round, black seeds about ⅛″ (3 mm) in diameter.	Seedpods look like miniature pea pods, about ⅜–⅞″ (1–2.5 cm) × ⅛″ (5 mm), with 2-8 seeds.
Range/ Zones
Habitats	Fields, roadsides, and waste places, dry black-soil prairies, grassy meadows, and riverbanks.	Meadows, grasslands, disturbed soils.

Vicia villosa description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.

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