Vicia amoena

Vicia amoena, the broadleaf or beautiful vetch, is a perennial climbing or scrambling herb of the pea family (Fabaceae) native to temperate eastern Asia, including northern and north-eastern China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan and eastern Russia, where it grows in grasslands, meadows, scrub, forest margins and along roadsides. It spreads from a creeping rhizome, producing slender, angled, climbing stems up to about 1 m or more long. The leaves are pinnately compound with several pairs of elliptic to oblong leaflets and terminate in a branched tendril used for climbing. From early summer the plant bears showy, one-sided racemes of numerous purple to blue-violet pea flowers. The fruit is a flattened, oblong legume pod that splits to release several seeds. It is a valued forage and pasture legume across its range.