Hairy Tare - Vicia hirsuta

Short to medium hairy plant. Leaves with 4 to 10 pairs of oblong leaflets. Flowers, whitish with a pale lilac tinge, small 2 to 4 mm with 1 to 8 in a short raceme. Pod black, 6 to 11 mm 2 seeded and hairy, usually black.

Smooth Tare is similar, but the two species can be separated with care. Smooth Tare flowers are larger and more purple in colour. See the marked diagram below for a comparison of the two species.

Dry grassy places, rough grassland, roadside verges.

May to August.

Annual.

Common throughout Britain except for parts of northern Scotland.

Common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 342 of the 617 tetrads.