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Tufted vetch

Vicia craccaFabaceaeHerbaceous perennial

A scrambling blue-purple legume that climbs through hedgerows and grassland by tendril, and one of the most valuable plants in Europe for long-tongued bumblebees. Tufted vetch flowers in dense one-sided racemes through high summer and is among the group of grassland legumes whose decline is directly implicated in bumblebee decline.

Where not to plant it

Naturalised and locally weedy in North America, where it is listed as invasive in some states.

Value to bees

Nectar
Very high
Pollen
High
As a honey crop
Feeds the colony but rarely yields a surplus
Which bees, and why
A cornerstone plant for long-tongued bumblebees, and for several scarce solitary bees that specialise on vetches. The keel flower requires force to open, which favours bumblebees over honey bees.

A keel flower needing weight and force to open, which biases it towards bumblebees and larger solitary bees.

Worth knowing
Very high for both, and specifically valuable to the long-tongued bumblebees that have declined most sharply.

Flowering

In flower
June to August (northern hemisphere)

Six to ten weeks in high summer, in hedge bottoms, rough grassland and field margins.

When nectar flows
Generous nectar held in a keel flower, produced steadily through the flowering.
Year-to-year variation
Reliable where rough grassland and hedge bottoms survive uncut through the summer.

Growing it

Conditions
Sun or light shade, any reasonable soil, and something to scramble through.
Size
Scrambling to 2 m through supporting vegetation.
Native range
Europe and temperate Asia, naturalised in North America.
Suits
Meadow or wildflower area, Hedgerow, Large gardens
  • Include it in any meadow or hedge-bottom mix intended for long-tongued bumblebees — vetches are the group with fewest alternatives.
  • It needs support to climb; it does nothing useful in a bare bed.
  • The single most effective management is leaving hedge bottoms and margins uncut until after August.

What it looks like

A scrambling perennial climbing by branched tendrils, with pinnate leaves and dense one-sided racemes of many small blue-violet pea flowers.

Sources

  • Bumblebees: Behaviour, Ecology, and Conservation — Oxford University Press (2010) · Monograph
  • Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland — Bloomsbury (2015) · Field guide

How sources are selected and weighted is set out in the sources and evidence policy.

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