This plant looks very much like the commoner Hairy tare (Vicia hirsuta) both having very small flowers often averaging only 1 or 2 mm in length but scrambling over all its neighbours. The difference is in the seeds. Typically Vicia hirsuta will have only two seed per pod but Vicia tetrasperma can, as its name suggests, have three, most often four and occasionally five seeds per pod.

Vicia tetrasperma is common in Wngland and most of Wales but from north Lancashire northwards records become much scarcer. Ther is a little in Scotland and even less in Ireland.

Bog in Kent, 2nd June 2007

Added on November 26th 2004, updated 23rd February 2012