Cow Vetch

Fabaceae

LIFE FORM: Perennial

NATIVITY: Europe

VEGETATIVE CHARACTERISTICS:

Trailing vine-like plant that can grow to 4 or 5 feet long, usually climbing over or through other vegetation; delicate leaves are alternate, pinnately compound and terminate with a coiling tendril.

FLOWERS:

Pea-like flowers are bluish-purple, about a quarter of an inch long and produced in clusters from July through August.

FRUIT/DISPERSAL AGENTS:

Reproduce readily by seed.

ECOLOGICAL PREFERENCE:

This adaptable plant does equally well in sun or shade in a variety of soil types. Prefers neglected residential and commercial landscapes; minimally maintained public parks and open space; vacant lots and rubble dump sites; abandoned grasslands (meadows); unmowed highway banks and median strips with frequent salt applications.

ENVIRONMENTAL FUNCTION:

Disturbance-adapted colonizer.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE:

Originally introduced as a fodder crop for livestock.