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Mountain Kidney Vetch

Anthyllis montana

Mountain Kidney Vetch
Photo: manfred.sause@volloeko.de, CC BY-SA 3.0

Mountain kidney vetch is a clump-forming, woody-based perennial from the mountains of southern Europe, grown for its silvery fern-like foliage and clover-like flower heads. It needs full sun and very good drainage, suiting it to rock and alpine gardens.

Family
Fabaceae (Pea & bean family)
Grows as
Fern, Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly once established; let the soil dry out between waterings and avoid waterlogging.
Soil
Poor to moderately fertile, very free-draining gritty or stony soil.
Temperature
Hardy in cold winters; protect from prolonged wet cold. Exact limits not established.
How easy
Easy
Native range
C. & S. Europe, Algeria
Climate
temperate

About

Anthyllis montana (syn. Vulneraria montana Scopoli), the mountain kidney vetch, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to the mountains of Southern Europe and parts of the Alps. Growing to 30 cm (12 in) tall by 60 cm (24 in) broad, it is a clump-forming, woody-based perennial. The leaves are divided into numerous fern-like leaflets and are silky and grey-green in colour. The white, pink or purple clover-like flower-heads are borne in spring and summer.

The Latin specific epithet montana refers to mountains or coming from mountains.

Other Anthyllis plants

Yellow Kidney Vetch · Common kidneyvetch

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Anthyllis montana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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