Lathyrus linifolius var. montanus - Common Bitter-vetch
Bitter-vetch is relatively common in East Cornwall but rare and localised in the west. Absent from wetlands and dense woods, it grows in grazed and ungrazed grassland, at margins of woods and scrub, on shaded road banks and verges, on Cornish Hedges, and beneath Bracken (
Pteridium aquilinum ) on heathland, as at Tregonetha Downs (SW96L, 1997, I.J.Bennallick). Interestingly, the distribution pattern seems to suggest that the Vice County boundary between East and West Cornwall, which extends from Truro to Wadebridge, is a real biogeographic divide. It is noticeable that there is a concentration of records immediately to the east of that line but not to the west. Recent finds include near Porthcollum (SW53L, 1994, C.N.French), Pemboa (SW62Y, 1991, C.N.French), near Hendra Farm (SW85R, 1994, C.N.French), near Delabole Wind Farm (SX08X, 1993, I.J.Bennallick), on the road to Tremail (SX18T, 1991, M.Atkinson), Merrifield (SS20Q, 1994, W.H.Tucker), around Stibb (SS21F, 1992, M.Atkinson), Greenamoor (SX29M, 1991, T.J.Dingle), and near Eggbeare (SX38J, 1995, H.M.Meredith).
Click here to see Aphotoflora images by David Fenwick
Source:
French, C.N., Murphy, R.J. & Atkinson, M. 1999. Flora of Cornwall. Wheal Seton Press, Camborne.