Tufted Vetch

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Tufted Vetch

Tufted Vetch Vicia cracca, also occasionally known as Cow Vetch or Bird Vetch, is a common species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
of vetch is not native throughout North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
, but native in Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
. It occurs in grassy fields and meadows, and roadside ditches.

Tufted Vetch is similar to a pea

Pea

A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the legume Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas. Although treated as a vegetable in cooking, it is botanically a fruit....
in growth habit, sending out noose

Noose

A noose is a loop at the end of a rope in which the knot slides to make the loop collapsible.Knots used for making nooses include the running bowline, the tarbuck knot, and the slip knot....
-like tendril

Tendril

In botany, a tendril is a specialized Plant stem, leaf or Petiole with a threadlike shape that is used by climbing plants for support and attachment, generally by twining around whatever it touches....
s from the tips of its leaves

Leaf

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Encyclopedia

Tufted Vetch Vicia cracca, also occasionally known as Cow Vetch or Bird Vetch, is a common species

Species

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
, but native in Europe

Europe

Asia

Pea

Noose

Tendril

Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
when it contacts another plant and securely fastens itself. This can cause "strangling" of smaller plants. An individual plant may reach a length (or height) of 2 m and its tap root may extend up to 1 m. The leaves are 3-8 cm long, pinnate, with 8-12 pairs of leaflets, each leaflet 5-10 mm long.

The plant is fast-growing and flowers prolifically, sending out one-sided raceme

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate growth and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called Pedicel s — along the axis....
s of cascading pea-flower shaped purple to violet flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s from the leaf axil during its late spring to late summer flowering period. Near August, the flowers drop off and tiny bright green seed pods start to form. Tufted Vetch is very similar to Hairy Vetch

Hairy vetch

Hairy Vetch , also called Fodder Vetch or Winter Vetch, is a plant native to Europe and western Asia. It is a legume, grown as a Fodder....
, but is distinguished from the latter by its smooth stem.

The seed

Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
pods are 2 cm long, and like the flowers, resemble those of a very small pea. The tiny seeds within are ripe when the pods have turned black. Unripened seeds are swollen and have a green tint to them, but they unswell when they become ripe. The seed pods vary from light brown to dark brown with black spots.

Cultivation and uses

Tufted Vetch is widely used as a forage

Fodder

In agriculture, fodder or animal feed is any foodstuff that is used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs....
crop for cattle

Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
, and is beneficial to other plants because, like other leguminous

Legume

A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae , or a fruit of these specific plants. A legume fruit is a Fruit#Simple fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually Dehiscence on two sides....
plants, it enriches the soil

Soil

Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
in which it grows by its nitrogen-fixing

Nitrogen fixation

Nitrogen fixation is the process by which nitrogen is taken from its relatively inert molecular form in the Earth's atmosphere and converted into nitrogen compounds ....
properties. Tufted Vetch is also much appreciated by bee

Bee

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants. Bees are a monophyly lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila....
s and butterflies

Butterfly

A butterfly is an insect of the Order Lepidoptera. Like all Lepidoptera, butterflies are notable for their unusual Biological life cycle with a larval caterpillar stage, an inactive pupal stage, and a spectacular metamorphosis into a familiar and colourful winged adult form....
as a source of nectar. The plant may also be used to curb erosion

Erosion

For morphological image processing operations, see Erosion 'For use of in dermatopathology, see Erosion Erosion is the removal of solids in the natural environment....
.

Owners of pet bird

Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s such as Budgerigar

Budgerigar

The 'budgerigar' , is a small parrot belonging to the tribe of the broad-tailed parrots ; sometimes considered a subfamily . It is the only species in the Australian genus 'Melopsittacus' and sometimes isolated in a tribe of its own, the 'Melopsittacini', although it is probably quite closely related to Pezoporus and Neophe...
s often use Tufted Vetch as a nutritious food; the birds are especially fond of the seeds but may also eat the foliage.

Its utility as a cover crop

Cover crop

Broadly defined, a cover crop is any Annual plant, Biennial plant, or perennial plant grown as a monoculture or polyculture , to improve any number of conditions associated with sustainable agriculture....
and source of green manure

Green manure

In agriculture, a green manure is a type of cover crop grown primarily to add nutrients and organic matter to the soil. Typically, a green manure crop is grown for a specific period, and then plowed under and incorporated into the soil....
has encouraged the introduction

Introduced species

A species is defined as introduced in a certain geographical area, if that area is outside the species' indigenous distributional range, and the species has arrived there by human activity....
and naturalisation of Tufted Vetch far beyond its native range. In North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
the plant is naturalised from southern Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
to southern Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia is an United States U.S. state on the East Coast of the United States of the Southern United States. The state is known as the "Old Dominion" and sometimes as "Mother of Presidents", because it is the birthplace of Lists of United States Presidents by place of birth#By state....
; it is considered an invasive

Invasive species

Invasive species is a phrase with several definitions. The first definition expresses the phrase in terms of non-indigenous species that adversely affect the habitats they invade economically, environmentally or ecologically....
weed

WEED

WEED is a radio station broadcasting a Gospel format. Licensed to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, USA, it serves the area. The station is currently owned by Northstar Broadcasting Corporation....
in some areas and its sale may be regulated.

Tufted Vetch is considered by some to be a potentially detrimental species in areas where it is not native. The vetch may crowd out native plant

Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
s, especially in areas of disturbed soil where the vetch may dominate before other plants have a chance to take hold. This is especially a concern in prairie

Prairie

Prairie refers to temperate grasslands of North America. These are areas of low topographic relief that historically supported grasses and herbs, with few or no trees, having a generally mesic habitat climate....
and other natural habitat restoration or land reclamation

Land reclamation

Land reclamation is either of two distinct practices. One involves creating new land from sea- or riverbeds, the other refers to restoring an area to a more natural state ....
projects in North America.

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