Plant · P-1151

Crown Vetch

Coronilla varia

Crown Vetch is a low, trailing perennial legume that spreads by both seed and a network of tough rhizomes, quickly forming a dense mat topped with clusters of pink and purple flowers through late spring. Its roots fix nitrogen and feed the ground as they break down, and a single plant can knit together 750 to 1100 square feet of bank or slope within four years, which is why it has long been sown to hold roadcuts and eroding ground. The whole plant carries a toxic glycoside, so while it has fed grazing livestock elsewhere, anyone using it as fodder should introduce it to animals gradually and watch how they do.