Filtered (1)
Crown vetch's flower stalks are about 6" long with a 1" wide cluster (an umbel) of 10-25 pea-like flowers on short (1/4") pedicels, all attached to the tip of the flower stalk. Each flower is 1/2" long and 1/4" wide, with a short green calyx bearing five pointed lobes and a typical pea-like corolla, bicolored in pink and white. The five petals are modified as a vertical standard (often pinker than the other petals, which are white), two lateral wings, and a pair of abutting petals forming a medial keel perpendicular to the standard. Within the keel are 10 stamens (one free and nine fused to each other, all with small yellow anthers) and a slender style, curved upwards, with a tiny terminal stigma. The fruit is a 1/2-2" long, narrow seedpod (loment) with 1-7 slightly constricted segments and a long terminal "beak" (the remains of the pistil); the pods remain attached to the flower stalk, forming a cluster often likened to "fingers". The tight flower clusters with showy, bicolored flowers are characteristic.

Securigera

Securigera varia

crown vetch [Blooms: Jun-Sep]