Medicinal Monday - American Vetch

This slender scrambling vine-like plant, American Vetch, has been used as a source of food and medicine for Native American Communities for centuries. It has a pretty purple flower and is in the sweet pea family.

About American Vetch

The scientific name of this plant is Vicia Americana and is in the genus Vicia family. This herbaceous perennial has a stem that grows across the ground and climbs onto surrounding vegetation where it attaches itself to them by means of willowy tendrils. It spreads by creeping rhizomes to form a cluster that sprawls more than two feet out from there. The egg-shaped, elliptic leaves are toothless and hairless with a tendril on the end that winds around other plants for support. This plant can be found in many parts of the U.S. and Canada, including Connecticut. It prefers well-drained soil and the sun and can be found in damp or gravelly slopes, in thickets, and in meadows. The color of the flower is purple and appears in elongated loose clusters of four to six blossoms. It typically blooms from May through September.  Fruits of this plant are green to reddish-brown pods that contain an average of ten seeds.

Culinary and Medicinal Uses

Many Native American communities would cook and eat the young shoots of this plant. The stems, pods, and seeds were boiled or baked then eaten. The stout roots were used for tying objects. The roots were also considered to be a good luck charm when gambling. This plant was sometimes used as fodder for horses and cattle.

Medicinal uses include treatment for soreness by bathing in the crushed leaves of this plant. An infusion of the plant was used as an eyewash as well as being used as a "life medicine."  Leaves were rubbed onto the hands and applied to spider bites.  The Iroquois used an infusion of the root of this plant as a love medicine. The Navajo smoked this plant next to horses to increase their endurance.

Did You Know

This plant has been used successfully in soil restoration projects.

It can fix nitrogen in the soil, and functions to help restore disturbed land.

The pea-like flowers are attractive to insects and are pollinated by bees.

Vetch is eaten by horses, cattle, sheep, deer, rabbits, and groundhogs.

There are more than 200 species of vetch worldwide.