Vicia unijuga

Vicia unijuga, commonly known as two-leaf vetch, is a perennial herb in the family Fabaceae native to temperate East Asia, including China, the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Mongolia and the Russian Far East, where it grows in meadows, forest margins, scrub and grassy slopes. Unlike most vetches it forms erect to ascending non-climbing stems 30 to 100 centimetres tall, lacking tendrils. The leaves are highly distinctive, consisting of only a single pair of large opposite leaflets borne on a short rachis terminating in a small bristle-like point rather than a tendril; each leaflet is broadly ovate to elliptic, 3 to 10 centimetres long, with entire margins and prominent venation. From summer into early autumn it produces short axillary racemes of 5 to 20 nodding pea-shaped flowers in shades of purple to violet-blue, 12 to 18 millimetres long. The fruit is a flattened oblong legume 2 to 3.5 centimetres long containing several small dark seeds. The species is grown locally as a fodder, ornamental and edible young shoot vegetable.