Vicia tetrasperma.commons.wikimedia.org (Accessed 5/2014).

Vicia tetrasperma is an annual vining herb, slender, stems to 60 cm, branching, matted or climbing. 

Leaves alternate, even-pinnate, tendril replacing terminal leaflet, leaflets 2-5 pairs, narrow, to 2 cm long, tips rounded with a tiny point. 

Flowers pale purple, to 0.7 cm long, pea-flower-shaped, calyx teeth unequal, 1-2 together on thin stalk to 3 cm long, May-Sept. 

Fruit a pod to 1.3 cm long, flat, blunt at both ends, seeds 3-5, to 0.2 cm. Wetland status: UPL. 

Frequency in NYC: Very infrequent. 

Origin: Eurasia. Habitat: Open areas. 

Notes: Poisonous. Attacked by the moth Coleophora fuscicornis, and nematodes of the genus Poratylenchus (Aarssen et al. 1986).