Pea-like: Vetch? (Vicia spp.)

Vetch is a member of the Pea Family (Fabaceae), and its species are more typically found in the mountain pine forests of our Southwest, but this plant is blooming in April of 2004 along the Ridge Road of Pool Wash at an elevation of about 3,900 feet. This plant has dark blue-green pinnate compound leaves, each leaflet being rather narrow and lanceolate, without bristle tips, and the leaf lacks a tendril. At the base of each leaf-stalk there are narrow, sharp wings. The flowers, which are multiple, lavender-white and pea-like, are blooming early in the year. The images below provide some closer indicators of features that may aid in identification, click on each image to enlarge it: note the pair of wings at the leaf-base in the small plant at the right in the right-hand photograph

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