Vicia sepiumL.

bush vetch

WFO wfo-0000212792 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Vicia sepium, photographed by Jon Mortin
fig. a Jon Mortin, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205459753
Vicia sepium, photographed by Pavel Kacl
fig. b Pavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205367736
Vicia sepium, photographed by Нурхайдарова Татьяна
fig. c Нурхайдарова Татьяна, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205187177
Vicia sepium, photographed by Павел Демиденко
fig. d Павел Демиденко, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205171312
Vicia sepium, photographed by Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas
fig. e Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205379856
Vicia sepium, photographed by Miriam
fig. f Miriam, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204871552
Vicia sepium, photographed by Tatiana Strus
fig. g Tatiana Strus, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204586230
Vicia sepium, photographed by alcesevropsky
fig. h alcesevropsky, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 204434785

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 50 botanical countries

Regions where Vicia sepium is native: Morocco, Altay, Buryatiya, China North-Central, China South-Central, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Krasnoyarsk, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Albania, Austria, Baltic States, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Czechia-Slovakia, Denmark, East European Russia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Krym, Netherlands, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Norway, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine MoroccoAltayBuryatiyaChina North-CentralChina South-CentralKazakhstanKirgizstanKrasnoyarskNorth CaucasusTranscaucasusTürkiyeWest SiberiaXinjiangPakistanWest HimalayaAlbaniaAustriaBaltic StatesBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCzechia-SlovakiaDenmarkEast European RussiaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIcelandIrelandItalyKrymNetherlandsNorth European RussiaNorthwest European RussiaNorwayNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainSwedenSwitzerlandUkraine Sardegna
Native distribution of Vicia sepium, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baltic States BLT
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
Denmark DEN
East European Russia RUE
Finland FIN
France FRA
Germany GER
Great Britain GRB
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Iceland ICE
Ireland IRE
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
Netherlands NET
North European Russia RUN
Northwest European Russia RUW
Norway NOR
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Sweden SWE
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Altay ALT ASIA-TEMPERATE
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Krasnoyarsk KRA
North Caucasus NCS
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL
West Himalaya WHM
Morocco MOR AFRICA

Not drawn on the map: Great Britain. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 2,020 in flower of 2,258 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Vicia sepium observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 2,020 of 2,258 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. One month has fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for it. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 2,014 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -18.4 °C -5.5 °C 2.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 17.5 °C 22.3 °C 24.6 °C
Annual rainfall 525 mm 743 mm 1,467 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 70 mm 129 mm 278 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 2,014 research-grade observations of Vicia sepium that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 38 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Atossa sepium (L.) Alef.
  • Atossa sepium var. angustifolia Alef.
  • Atossa sepium var. ochroleuca (DC.) Alef.
  • Atossa sepium var. subrotunda (Ser.) Alef.
  • Faba sepium (L.) Bernh.
  • Vicia drymeja Schur
  • Vicia eriocalyx (Čelak.) Landolt
  • Vicia montana Froel. ex W.D.J.Koch
  • Vicia oxyphylla Schur
  • Vicia pratensis Wallr.
  • Vicia pseudosepium Nyman
  • Vicia rotundifolia Gilib.
  • Vicia separia Dulac
  • Vicia sepium subsp. eriocalyx (Čelak.) G.H.Loos
  • Vicia sepium subsp. eriocalyx (Čelak.) Holub
  • Vicia sepium var. alba Gray
  • Vicia sepium var. albiflora Gaudin
  • Vicia sepium var. angustifolia Schur
  • Vicia sepium var. angustifolia W.D.J.Koch
  • Vicia sepium var. anomala Boenn.
  • Vicia sepium var. capsella Ser.
  • Vicia sepium var. eriocalyx Čelak.
  • Vicia sepium var. hartii Akeroyd
  • Vicia sepium var. longisepala Ekutim.

and 14 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.