Effect:
expectorant, anti-inflammatory
Areas of application:
colds, coughs, liver disease, insomnia
Parts of the plant used:
roots, leaves
Collection time:
May to September
Can be found:
On nutrient-rich fat and wet meadows.
Ingredients:
Minerals, vitamins
Other:
The Yellow Vetchling / Meadow Pea is a perennial plant and can grow between 30 and 60 cm tall, rarely up to 120 cm. The plant forms rhizomes. The upper parts of the plant are bare to sparsely hairy. It often has several ascending or climbing, square stems, which are often heavily branched and wingless. The alternately arranged leaves are divided into a petiole and a leaf blade. The pinnate leaf blade consists of just a single pair of leaflets and a terminal, usually simple or rarely branched (bifurcated) tendril. The two leaflets are linear-lanceolate to lanceolate or elliptical to egg-shaped with a mostly pointed, sometimes pointed or rarely blunt and pointed upper end and they are glabrous to densely downy hairy. The stipules are linear to lanceolate, rarely egg-shaped or arrow-shaped. There are usually two to twelve flowers in a racemose inflorescence. The mostly upright flower stalk is pressed down with yellowish hairs and the flowers are zygomorphic and five-petaled with a double perianth. The five sepals are glabrous or downy hairy, unequal and bell-shaped and fused to form a long calyx tube. The five calyx teeth end in a point. The upper and middle calyx teeth are triangular or lanceolate and the lower calyx teeth are linear-lanceolate. The five petals are bright yellow. Flowering time is from June to August. The mostly glabrous, black pod, rarely contains two, but usually six to twelve seeds.
🛑 Although no evidence has been found of the toxicity of this plant, some species of this genus contain a toxic amino acid in the seeds. If consumed in large quantities, this can cause a serious nervous system disorder called "lathyrism". Small amounts are considered nutritious, so be careful when identifying the plant so that you don't use the wrong one.
In the kitchen, the young shoots and leaves are suitable for cooked vegetable dishes. The young pods can be used like green beans. When the pods are ripe, the seeds can be cooked and eaten like peas. The plant should not be consumed raw.
In medicine, "vet flour" ("farina fabarum") was previously used pharmaceutically.
The seeds are used as a solvent in Spain.