Narrowleaf Vetch (Common Vetch)

Scientific Name - Vicia sativa L.
Family - Leguminosae

Annual or short-lived perennial with reclining or climbing stems. Leaves alternate, compound with three to nine pairs of leaflets. Leaflets at the tip modified into a simple or branched tendril which enables plant to climb. Leaflets very narrowly elliptic to oval, usually longer than broad. Flowers blue, pale lavender or purple. Flowers in leaf axils, stalkless to long-stalked, one to two. Fruit a stalkless or short-stalked, flat pod with six to twelve seeds. Reproduces by seed. Found in turf, pastures, moist to wet woods, waste areas and fields. Occurs throughout the United States. Found worldwide in the temperate regions. Native from Europe into Russia.