Seaside wildflower

This is quite a blousy flower and I initially thought I’d come across a garden escape. The first time I saw it I found it growing on the beach in Eastbourne.

Distinctive vetch

As a vetch, it gets its own page because I think it’s not similar to any other flower in that group, and is the only wild Anthyllis. The rounded ball of pea flowers is quite large at about 3cm across. On the plant I saw, each little yellow flower had a red base, and was surrounded with wool. There is apparently a wide range of subspecies however, and I’ve read that the red is found in coastal areas, with yellow being more common.

For comparison, this Kidney vetch below was in Yorkshire, also by the sea, without the red markings.

Woundwort

Anthyllis vulneraria is also known as woundwort, showing that this was historically a medicinal plant. It was traditionally used externally on minor wounds, possibly due to the cotton-wool like qualities.

Identifying vetches, vetchlings and other peas

I have written more about identifying vetches and vetchlings.

Other pea flowers I’ve written pages for so far include clover, sanfoin, restharrow and melilot.

I have tagged any blog posts mentioning Kidney vetch – Anthyllis vulneraria with the name anthyllis

https://photographingwildflowers.co.uk/tag/anthyllis/