Common vetch
Vicia sativa
- Flowering period
- May–July
- Nectar
- mittel
- Pollen
- mittel
Common vetch flowers from May to July with purple-red flowers that sit in pairs in the leaf axils. It is grown as a fodder plant and green manure and has escaped onto fields. In addition to the flowers it bears small nectar glands on its stipules, which are also used by bees. British measurements give around 300 micrograms of sugar per flower per day, around 3,999 pollen grains per flower and a nectar yield of around 327 kilograms of sugar per hectare per year.
Sources (6)
- Vicia sativa, Wikipedia
- Vicia sativa, Euro+Med PlantBase über PESI
- Vicia sativa, GBIF Backbone Taxonomy
- Filipiak, Walczyńska, Denisow, Petanidou, Ziółkowska (2022): Phenology and production of pollen, nectar and sugar in 1612 plant species from various environments
- Baude, Kunin, Memmott (2015): Nectar sugar values of common British plant species [AgriLand]
- Baude, Kunin, Davies, Wright, Memmott (2025): Pollen production values of common British plant species