Kidney Vetch - Anthyllis vulneraria

Low to medium silkily hairy plant. Leaves pinnate, lower with 5 to 7 leaflets, the upper with 9 to 15 leaflets. Flowers usually yellow but sometimes red or orange 12 to 15 mm in dense heads with a leaf like bract immediately beneath.

There are several subspecies which are hard to differentiate.  Subspecies carpatica has been recorded in VC55 as well as the native subspecies vulneraria.

Dry calcareous grassland, railway embankments and quarries often coastal.

June to September.

Perennial.

Widespread and fairly frequent in Britain.

Not common in Leicestershire and Rutland in Leicestershire it is mainly confined to the north east of the County. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 18 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current checklist (Jeeves 2011) subspecies carpatica is listed as Alien; disturbed ground; rare but probably under-recorded. Subspecies vulneraria is listed as Native; calcareous  grassland and disturbed ground; occasional