About Anthyllis vulneraria L.
Anthyllis vulneraria L. grows 5 to 40 centimetres (2.0 to 15.7 inches) tall. Its stem is simple, or more commonly branched. Its leaves are imparipinnate; they may be glabrous, or have scattered hairs on the upper leaf surface and silky hairs on the underside. Its flower heads are spherical, and measure 10 to 20 millimetres (0.39 to 0.79 inches) in length. Most subspecies have yellow petals, while the variety A. vulneraria var. coccinea has red petals. This species flowers between June and September. It produces a legume fruit, which ripen from July to October. Kidney vetch, the common name of this plant, serves as a food plant for the larvae of the small blue butterfly, as well as for the leaf miner Aproaerema anthyllidella.
This plant occurs sporadically across a wide range: it grows from Iceland to the Mediterranean across Europe, in Asia Minor extending to Iran, and in North Africa and Ethiopia. It has become naturalized in North America. It prefers dry grasslands and rocky environments with calcareous soil, and can grow at elevations up to 3,000 m (9,800 ft).
