This little weak-stemmed annual plant scrambles over other vegetation, often on arable land. It has really tiny little peaflowers, only 2-4mm long, which are pale lilac in colour and which are in groups of 1 – 9 in a loose group. Its pinnately divided leaves comprise 4-10 pairs of leaflets and end in branched tendrils which cling to other plants over which it clambers. It flowers from May to August. Its seed pods, which are covered in fine hairs, contain 2 seeds. Formerly known as Vicia hirsuta, this is a native plant which belongs to the family Fabaceae.
I first came across this plant in 1978 near the sea at Castlecove in Co Kerry and I photographed it at Ladies Island Lake in Co Wexford in 2007.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
