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large yellow vetch

Vicia grandiflora Β· Fabaceae

large yellow vetch (Vicia grandiflora)
Photo: (c) Lena Struwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) Β· CC BY-SA Β· via iNaturalist

large yellow vetch (Vicia grandiflora) is a annual herbaceous plant in the Fabaceae family. It is introduced to North America rather than native. USDA records it as hardy in zone 10 and warmer, down to about 37Β°F.

At a glance

Typeforb-herb USDA
Lifecycleannual USDA
Native statusintroduced USDA
Mature height2 ft USDA
Lightfull-sun USDA
Water needmedium USDA
Growth ratemoderate USDA
Soil pH6–6.9 USDA
BloomMarch–May USDA
Flower colorYellow USDA
Hardiness zones10 and warmer USDA
Guild layernutrient Derived
Nursery availabilityNo Known Source USDA

USDA quoted from the USDA PLANTS database Β· Derived computed by a fixed rule from those columns. No value on this page is estimated.

Growing conditions

It needs full sun. USDA rates it as having moderate water needs. It is recorded on soils from pH 6 to 6.9 β€” a broad range that spans acidic through mildly alkaline ground. Its cold limit is zone 10; USDA publishes no warm-end limit, so gardeners in warmer zones should check local heat tolerance separately.

Size and growth

At maturity it reaches about 2 ft, making it a low to knee-height plant. It grows at a moderate rate, which matters when you are timing a planting around the layers above it.

Bloom period

USDA records a bloom period of March through May. The flower color USDA records is yellow. Bloom timing is how the Guild Builder overlaps flowering across a planting so something is in flower for as much of the season as possible.

Bloom period is a claim about when this plant flowers. It is deliberately not a pollinator rating β€” no dataset we trust publishes one, so we do not make that claim. See Data & sources.

Role in a guild

Nutrient layer. In a layered planting this is it contributes to soil fertility rather than to structure. We derive the layer from the plant's growth habit and mature height using a fixed rule, so the same inputs always produce the same layer.

Build a guild around large yellow vetch β†’

Tags

deciduousclay-tolerantintroducednitrogen-fixerfull-sun

Related plants

Others in Vicia

Where this data comes from

Every value on this page comes from the USDA PLANTS database record for symbol VIGR, or is computed from those values by a fixed rule. Nothing here is estimated or model-generated. Where USDA publishes no value, this page omits the claim rather than filling the gap.

Read our full data sources and methodology.

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