Brown vetchling

Lathyrus setifolius, the brown vetchling or narrow-leaved red vetchling, is a slender annual herb in the legume family (Fabaceae), distributed across the Mediterranean Basin and adjoining Atlantic regions from Portugal and Spain through southern France, Italy, the Balkans, and North Africa to the Near East. Plants produce wiry, climbing or scrambling stems 20-60 cm long, narrowly winged or angular but lacking broad foliaceous wings. The leaves are alternate, each composed of a single pair of very narrow linear leaflets 3-6 cm long and 1-2 mm wide, ending in a branched tendril that allows the plant to clamber over neighbouring vegetation; stipules are small, narrowly half-arrow-shaped (semi-sagittate). Inflorescences are slender axillary peduncles bearing one (rarely two) flower; the flowers are about 10-15 mm long with a reddish-orange to brick-red or brownish standard, paler wings, and a whitish keel, giving the species its common name. The fruit is a flat linear-oblong legume 3-5 cm long, glabrous, containing several small dark seeds. The plant grows in dry grassland, cereal fields, garrigue, and open scrub on calcareous soils.