Horseshoe Vetch - Hippocrepis comosa

Low, usually prostrate, hairy plant, woody at the base. Leaves pinnate with three to eight pairs of linear to oval leaflets. Flowers, yellow, 6 to 10 mm, in stalked heads of five to 12, the standard petal with a distinct claw. Pods twisting, with horse-shoe shaped segments.

Bird's-foot trefoils have similar yellow flower-heads (but very different leaves and seed-pods)

leaves with many pairs of leaflets; fruit flattened with several horseshoe-shaped segments 

A photograph of the plant in its habitat, but showing leaves and/or fruits as well as flowers (RPR)

Short, dry turf on chalk and limestone.

Flowers April to July.

Perennial.

Widespread, but local in England, scarce in many other areas of Britain and absent in the far north.

Scarce and local in Leicestershire and Rutland, and declining due to habitat loss. It was not recorded in The Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi & Evans, 1988), but was recorded in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971) in 4 tetrads.

In the current checklist (Jeeves 2011) it is listed as Native; calcareous grassland.  There are few recent records.

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) as Locally Scarce (i.e. present in 4-10 sites)