Horseshoe-vetch

Hippocrepis comosa, the horseshoe vetch, is a low, mat-forming perennial herb of the family Fabaceae with slender, somewhat woody-based stems spreading to 30 cm or more. The leaves are pinnately compound with numerous small, narrow, paired leaflets and a terminal leaflet. The bright yellow pea-like flowers are borne in compact, rounded, long-stalked umbel-like clusters of five to twelve, blooming in late spring and summer. The distinctive fruit is a slender pod that is wavy and constricted between the seeds, breaking into curved, horseshoe-shaped segments that give the plant its name. Native to Europe and adjacent western Asia, horseshoe vetch is strongly associated with thin, dry, calcareous soils, growing on chalk and limestone grassland, downs, banks and rocky slopes, and is an important food plant for several butterflies.