Vicia hirsuta (L.) Gray, Hairy Tare
Account Summary
Native, very rare. European temperate, but so widely naturalised it is now circumpolar.
1892; Praeger, R.Ll.; Long Island, Lower Lough Erne.
Growth form and preferred habitats
A small, scrambling, slender annual with weak stems 30-60 cm long and the leaves with 6-10 pairs of small, usually blunt leaflets that end in a branched tendril. The small flowers, 2-6 together on a slender peduncle, are pale blue. The hairy legume pods are very distinctive and contain just two large globose seeds (1.2-2.2 mm in diameter).
Once a troublesome weed of arable crops, typical habitats nowadays are dry banks, roadside verges and other forms of disturbed scrubby grassland, the margins of arable fields, as well as on coastal ground (Garrard & Streeter 1983; New Atlas). The plant appears to prefer light, well-drained, mildly acid to calcareous soils and in the mid-19th century and earlier it was a significant weed of cornfield and other cultivation, as it still is in many parts of the world. Entire crops were sometimes destroyed by its rampant growth, which earned it the feared name of 'Strangle Tare' or 'Tine-tare', the verb 'tine' meaning 'to suffer loss or deprivation' (Grigson 1955, 1987). It appears the seeds were not easily separated from the harvested grain and flour was liable to be made unpalatable by the level of contamination. At the time, V. hirsuta was also a frequent impurity of commercial Clover, Wheat, Oat and Rye seed (Salisbury 1964).
The established strategy of V. hirsuta was given as R/CR by Grime et al. (1988) meaning it was intermediate between ruderal and competitive ruderal; it is certainly weedy in its behaviour (rapid turnover of growth, flowering and seeding). In terms of phenology, Hairy Tare is a winter annual (ie hibernal), germinating in the autumn, overwintering as a small plantlet and flowering and fruiting in early summer. Seed has been recovered from the dung of cattle, suggesting that if the plant is grazed in autumn pastures, seed may be transported internally (Salisbury 1964). As is very often the case, measures or estimates of buried seed survival in soil suggest a range of values from transient (less than one year) to long-term persistent (surviving at least five years) Thompson et al. (1997).
Irish occurrence
V. hirsuta is a widespread but very local species in Ireland, being most frequently found on field margins and dry banks in the eastern half, but much rarer in the west (Parnell & Curtis 2012).
Fermanagh occurrence
Although possibly never very common anywhere in W Ireland, V. hirsuta has declined to great rarity in Fermanagh following the almost total demise of arable farming here during the last 60 or more years following World War II. There are a total of just seven records of Hairy Tare in the Fermanagh Flora Database in six tetrads, four of which are pre-1950 in date. The details are as follows: Praeger's late 19th century finds on Inishfree and Long islands, Lower Lough Erne (Praeger 1892), and two records by Meikle and co-workers on or near the Crom Castle estate on Upper Lough Erne – at Galloon Td in 1946 and in a potato field near Ports Lough in 1949 (Meikle et al. 1957 & 1975). V. hirsuta is still a very rare plant in Fermanagh, having been seen at just three stations in recent years: two adjacent sites on Lower Lough Erne islands in 1989 by Matthew Tickner (Muckinish West and Rosscor) and in the same year in the Correl Glen NR by members of an EHS Habitat Survey Team. The latter is a most unexpected site for an annual species that is most often associated with dry, stony, disturbed ground and RHN and the current author (RSF) are a little wary of accepting it. However, the access paths in this wet upland wooded glen are constructed of rough angular gravel and they may therefore have provided a suitable niche (however fleetingly) for this species.
British occurrence
In strong contrast to its much rarer occurrence in Ireland, the New Atlas map indicates that, at least in lowland Britain, V. hirsuta is fairly frequent, widespread and locally abundant in suitable rough grassland or disturbed ground; the main exceptions to this lie in N, W & SW Scotland, NW England and parts of C Wales. At least in the Scottish areas, the predominant wet, acid peat, boggy ground provides an obvious explanation for the absence of this species.
European and world occurrence
Crop weed species, like V. hirsuta, spread with agriculture around the world in both hemispheres and become almost circumpolar in the north and this can make it difficult to distinguish native from introduced occurrence. However, this nowadays very widespread species is considered native in W & S Europe, N Africa and parts of SW Asia. It is near-naturalised in many countries worldwide (Hultén & Fries 1986, Map 1206; Sell & Murrell 2009).
Threats
Unknown.