Vicia cracca (Tufted Vetch) - photos and description
Raceme is one-sided.
General: Weak-stemmed perennial with a climbing or trailing growth habit. Plants in genus Vicia have their terminal leaflet replaced with a tendril. Stems square, and pubescent.
Flowers: Flowers are purple-blue to pink in a dense, one-sided raceme. Up to 40 flowers in a raceme. We measured a flower at 11 mm long.
Leaves: Leaves alternate, pinnate, we counted up to 20 leaflets. Leaflets are linear-lanceolate, we measured a leaflet at 15 mm long by 3 mm wide.
Height: Budd's Flora lists stem length to 125 cm long, we measured plants to 80 cm tall.
Habitat: Roadsides and fields in the boreal forest and parklands.
Abundance: Listed as fairly common / uncommon by Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Saskatchewan.
Origin: Introduced.
When and where photographed: The above photos were taken July 5th, on a forest roadside, boreal forest, Hudson Bay district about 400 km northeast of Regina, SK, and, August 12th, highway ditch, parklands, about 300 km east of our home in Regina, SK.