Vicia cracca | tufted vetch
Scrambling small wildlife friendly climber with otherworldly colour
Scrambling and scribbly, Vicia cracca known as tufted vetch, is one of my top future plants for gardens. I first noticed it climbing up rusty metal fences in waste grounds of south London, then I spotted it growing among ox-eye daisies and grasses of meadows.
Pops of purple, pink and blue from its space-age vertical one-sided racemes of flower lend an almost ultraviolet colour, a colour I treasure in gardens.
Beautiful ladder leaves on stems as though I’ve scrawled on a piece of paper. Its mess shouldn’t work and yet it does. Creating a wonderful mound of non-stop colour all summer.