Spring Vetch Care

Spring vetch is a plant species in the bean family Fabaceae.[1] It is native to Europe and western Asia, and it is known on other continents as an introduced species. V. lathyroides is easily overlooked because of its small size and early-flowering, but in some areas may also have been over-recorded for dwarf forms of V. sativa subsp. nigra, with which it often grows. However, it is very much better recorded than it was for the 1962 Atlas.

Vicia lathyroides is an annual with stems up to 12 cm long. The leaves have 2 or 4 pairs of leaflets which end in a tendril or point. The flowers are single up to 6 mm long and without a stalk. The petals are purple and produce a pod up to 20 mm long.

How to get rid of: Control common vetch with a post-emergent two-, three-, and four-way broadleaf herbicide. Herbicides containing triclopyr and clopyralid, as well as fluroxypyr products are efficient herbicide controls.