Hairy tare

How to recognise it

Habit

Slender annual with thin, angled, slightly hairy stems of 20–70 cm, sometimes up to 1 m, that climbs through other plants with branched tendrils.

Leaf

Pinnate, with 4–10 pairs of narrow, linear leaflets 5–20 mm long and a branched tendril at the tip; the stipules are small and narrow.

Flower

Tiny, 3–5 mm, whitish to pale lilac, with 1–8 flowers together on a long, thin stalk from the leaf axil, from May to August.

Fruit/Seed

Short, flat, hairy pods of 6–11 mm, usually holding two round seeds.

Roots

A thin taproot with nodules housing nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

Confused with

Smooth tare has hairless pods usually with four seeds, only 1–2 larger lilac flowers per stalk and fewer leaflets per leaf. Tufted vetch is perennial and has long, one-sided spikes of many bluish-purple flowers.

Flowering: May–August · Pruning: August

Why grow it?

• Fixes nitrogen from the air through bacteria in its root nodules, so it enriches poor soil a little.
• The small flowers are visited by small bees, although they often pollinate themselves too.
• The seeds are food for pigeons and other seed-eating birds.
• An easy annual pioneer for a cornfield-flower mix or a poor verge.
• Flowers from May to August, even on dry, poor soil where little else grows.

Hairy tare: where does it grow best?

• In the wild: verges, dykes, arable fields and field margins, rough grassland, hedgerows, scrub, waste ground and railway land.
• Full sun to light half shade.
• Dry to moderately moist, sandy to loamy soil, poor rather than rich.
• In the garden: in a cornfield-flower strip, a flowery verge or a rough corner where it can climb up taller plants.

Goes well with

• Common poppy: A red cornfield flower on the same open, sunny ground.
• Cornflower: Touches of blue in the same cornfield-flower mix.
• Smooth tare: Looks similar and grows in the same places: a nice way to learn them side by side.
• Common bird’s-foot trefoil: Yellow pea flowers for the same poor verge, and food plant of the common blue.

Hairy tare: when and how to plant it?

1. Buy seed of native origin from a wild-plant nursery, on its own or in a cornfield-flower or verge mix.
2. Sow in September–October or March–April on open, loose soil, about 1 cm deep.
3. The seed has a hard coat: soaking it in water overnight before sowing can speed up germination.
4. Sow thinly, 15–20 cm apart, ideally among grasses or taller plants it can climb.
5. Never dig up plants from the wild; a handful of seed from a mix or from your own garden is enough.

Care

Water

Not needed, except after sowing during long dry spells.

Feeding

Not needed: it makes its own nitrogen and likes poor soil.

Mowing

Only mow a verge or strip with hairy tare after it has set seed, in August, and remove the cuttings.

Spreading

In the vegetable plot it sometimes climbs up beans and peas. Pull the plants out before they set seed; the roots come away easily.

Self-seeding

Let the pods ripen: they burst open and shoot the seed around the plant.

Tip: Want to tell hairy tare from smooth tare? Look at the pods: hairy with two seeds is hairy tare, hairless with four seeds is smooth tare.

Pruning and mowing

Pruning months: August.

When: Not needed; mow or clear in August, after the seed has set.

How:

• Only mow a verge or wildflower strip once most of the pods are ripe and dry.
• If you want it out of the vegetable plot, pull up the stems before they set seed.
• Leave the cuttings for a few days so the seed drops out, then remove them.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Seed

Ripens in July–August; the pods burst open. Sow in autumn or spring on bare soil, or let it self-seed.

Hairy tare: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −20 °C.

• Plants that germinate in autumn overwinter as small green plants and flower from May.
• The plant itself dies after setting seed; the seed overwinters in the soil.
• The young plants cope well with ordinary Belgian winters.

Diseases and pests

• Flattened cereals: In a cereal field the tendrils can pull the crop over. In a garden this is rarely a problem; among peas and beans you simply pull it out.
• Getting overgrown: On rich soil it disappears under grasses and tall plants. Sow on poor, open ground and mow every year, removing the cuttings.
• Aphids: Black aphids sometimes appear on the shoot tips; ladybirds and hoverfly larvae deal with them.
• Too much in a strip: In a cornfield-flower strip it can smother other species. Pull up some of the plants before they set seed.

Through the year

• March: Sow on bare soil. Overwintered plants start growing.
• April: The tendrils climb through the grass.
• May: First small flowers.
• June: Full flower. Pull out in the vegetable plot where it is in the way.
• July: Flowering and first ripe pods.
• August: Seed ripe; mow and remove the cuttings.
• September: Sow for next year.
• October: Seedlings appear.

Did you know?

• Hirsuta means ‘shaggy-haired’ and refers to the hairy pods.
• Many people know the word tare from the biblical parable of the wheat and the tares; there it most likely means darnel, a poisonous grass, not vetch.
• The tendrils are modified end leaflets: they wind around anything they touch.