Sainfoin - Onobrychis viciifolia

Description

Flowers pink with purple veins 10 to 14 mm in long stalked axillary racemes. Leaves pinnate with 13 - 29 pairs of oblong leaflets.  Often introduced in wildflower seed, and there is a wide range of variation in habit, leaflet and corolla shape.

Identification difficulty
ID guidance

Many pairs of leaflets, pink to purple flowers in racemes

Recording advice

A photograph of the whole plant in its habitat, showing leaves as well as flowers

Habitat

Grassland, short turf, bare ground.

When to see it

May to August.

Life History

Perennial.

UK Status

Local in the south of England and in Wales, quite rare elsewhere.

VC55 Status

Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 2 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current checklist (Jeeves 2011) it is listed as Alien; disturbed ground; rare

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Sainfoin
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Fabales
Family:
Fabaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
17
First record:
19/05/2011 (Calow, Graham)
Last record:
01/07/2023 (Pochin, Christine)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

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