Pea Family [Fabaceae] |
status
flower
flower
flower
morph
petals
type
stem
rarity
Summer months, West Oxfordshire. | Photo: © Chris Hughes |
A lowish-growing perennial reaching up to 30cm. Flowers are 5-petalled vetch type 15-18mm in a small cluster of just a few. |
Summer months, West Oxfordshire. | Photo: © Chris Hughes |
Flowers bluish-purple and only rarely white. |
Summer months, West Oxfordshire. | Photo: © Chris Hughes |
The leaves have 12 to 26 leaflets in (more or less) near-opposite pairs on a singly-grooved rachis plus a terminating leaflet. These leaves are well separated both from the flower and themselves. There may be two or more of these leaves on the stem. The leaflets have a few longish hairs each. |
Easily mis-identified as : The fruits are about 1cm long and sometimes inflated, like a pointed but otherwise oval nut cupped just less than half-way by a bluntly-toothed sepal. They are very hairy. Purple Milk-vetch is very uncommon, gaining a rarity rating of [R] and occurs very locally on well-drained short grass on calcareous soils. It is found in Eastern Britain from Hertfordshire to West Sunderland, and extremely scattered elsewhere in England and Scotland, IoM, and County Clare. It belongs in the Astragalus genus along with Wild Liquorice (Astragalus glycyphyllos) and a few other Milk-vetches.
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Astragalus | danicus | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Fabaceae |
Astragalus (Milk-Vetches) |
Pea Family [Fabaceae] |