Lathyrus laevigatus

Lathyrus laevigatus, sometimes known as yellow vetchling, is a perennial herb in the family Fabaceae native to woodlands, forest meadows and montane grasslands of central, southeastern and eastern Europe, the Caucasus and parts of western Asia. It grows from a stout creeping rhizome, producing erect to ascending, somewhat angled but unwinged stems 30 to 80 centimetres tall, distinctive within the genus for being smooth and glabrous, a feature reflected in the specific epithet laevigatus. The pinnately compound leaves bear two to four pairs of relatively large, ovate to elliptic, smooth, bluish-green leaflets 3 to 8 centimetres long, and terminate not in a tendril but in a small bristle-like point. Conspicuous leafy semi-sagittate stipules occur at the base of each leaf. From late spring into summer it produces axillary racemes of 5 to 12 nodding pea-shaped flowers 18 to 25 millimetres long that open bright yellow and fade to dull orange or reddish-brown with age. The fruit is a flattened smooth legume containing several smooth seeds.