§1 Plant
Vicia cracca L.
vernacular bird vetch — species · Fabaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb, Vine
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Fabaceae Lindl.
- Genus
- Vicia
§2a
Native status, by region
- AK Alaska Introduced
- CAN Canada Introduced
- GL Greenland Introduced
- HI Hawaii Introduced
- L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
- SPM St. Pierre & Miquelon Introduced
§2b
County-level range
· 259 counties across 22 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- High
- Shade
- Medium
- Moisture use
- Low
- Fire
- High
- Salinity
- None
- Anaerobic
- None
- CaCO₃
- High
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -33 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 110 min.
- Precipitation
- 32–60 in/yr
- pH range
- 4.9–7
- Root depth
- 12 in min.
- Fertility need
- Low
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Rhizomatous
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Lifespan
- Moderate
- Mature height
- 1.5 ft
- Foliage texture
- Fine
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Moderate
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Purple
- Fruit colour
- Black
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- Medium
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Late Spring
- Seed abundance
- Low
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Summer
- Spread rate
- Slow
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 40,000
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- High
- Graze palatability
- High
- Palatable, human
- No
- Protein potential
- Medium
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 259 counties across 22 states/territories.
Alabama view state ↗ 4 I ▾
Alaska view state ↗ 7 I ▾
Illinois view state ↗ 17 I ▾
Maine view state ↗ 16 I ▾
Massachusetts view state ↗ 14 I ▾
Michigan view state ↗ 18 I ▾
Minnesota view state ↗ 8 I ▾
Missouri view state ↗ 3 I ▾
Montana view state ↗ 9 I ▾
New Hampshire view state ↗ 10 I ▾
New Jersey view state ↗ 14 I ▾
New York view state ↗ 41 I ▾
- Albany 36001
- Bronx 36005
- Cattaraugus 36009
- Cayuga 36011
- Chemung 36015
- Clinton 36019
- Delaware 36025
- Erie 36029
- Essex 36031
- Greene 36039
- Hamilton 36041
- Herkimer 36043
- Jefferson 36045
- Kings 36047
- Lewis 36049
- Livingston 36051
- Madison 36053
- Monroe 36055
- Nassau 36059
- New York 36061
- Oneida 36065
- Onondaga 36067
- Orange 36071
- Oswego 36075
- Otsego 36077
- Putnam 36079
- Queens 36081
- Rensselaer 36083
- Richmond 36085
- Rockland 36087
- Saratoga 36091
- Schenectady 36093
- St. Lawrence 36089
- Suffolk 36103
- Tioga 36107
- Tompkins 36109
- Ulster 36111
- Warren 36113
- Washington 36115
- Westchester 36119
- Wyoming 36121
North Carolina view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Ohio view state ↗ 21 I ▾
Pennsylvania view state ↗ 25 I ▾
- Beaver 42007
- Berks 42011
- Blair 42013
- Bucks 42017
- Butler 42019
- Cameron 42023
- Chester 42029
- Clarion 42031
- Dauphin 42043
- Delaware 42045
- Elk 42047
- Erie 42049
- Huntingdon 42061
- Lackawanna 42069
- Lancaster 42071
- Lehigh 42077
- Luzerne 42079
- Mercer 42085
- Monroe 42089
- Montgomery 42091
- Northampton 42095
- Philadelphia 42101
- Schuylkill 42107
- Warren 42123
- Westmoreland 42129
Rhode Island view state ↗ 3 I ▾
South Dakota view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Tennessee view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Vermont view state ↗ 13 I ▾
Virginia view state ↗ 11 I ▾
West Virginia view state ↗ 3 I ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/VICR ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/2975287 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T10:50:45Z