PlantFiles: Crown Vetch
Coronilla varia

I don't state my dislike for a plant very often, but in this case I thought I'd make an exception. I personally hate this plant with a passion. It may look pretty or sometimes even smell nice, but it's negative factors outweigh the positive many times over. It's horribly invasive and has virtually crowded out many of the native species that also grow in this area.

It's a clear example of what happens when some well-meaning people chose a plant for erosion control without checking first to see what sort of impact it would have on its environment. Every year you see larger and larger areas of roadside taken over by this plant and it's positively gut-wrenching to see how it's destroying the habitat of the native species.

My honest advice to anyone who wants to buy or transplant this to their garden is DO NOT DO IT!!! You will be sorry in the future. Never mind how nice or fragrant it may be. DO NOT contribute to the degradation of your local environment by allowing this plant to grow in your garden. Once it escapes, it will spread and spread until it starts showing up everywhere.

This plant ranks on my evil plant list right up there at the top with Garlic Mustard.

Crown Vetch Coronilla varia is naturalized in Texas and other States and is considered an invasive plant in Texas.

Mn. has planted( the pink & white) it in ditches too steep to mow etc. along the interstates-it looks good tolerates bad soil little water. The yellow (Mediteranian) is lower growing we see it in empty lots, along curbs -can be invasive but seem to be easily controled by mowing or the weedeater- I love it- really does look better than the uncared for overgrown empty lots full of weeds.

It's nice to know this plant has behaved itself for a few folks... maybe they have a different variety than the stuff that creeps and climbs all over eastern NC. It's kind of pretty on its own, but will spread like wildfire and will climb any shrub or tree. The old azaleas and gardenias that were here when we moved in were so covered with it that you couldn't tell what kind of shrubs they were. Don't plant it unless you're positive you want it, because it can NOT be killed.

A little surprising to find such negative comments
about this little guy.

I intentionally spread it about our garden.

It is one of the first plants to appear in spring here in
Northeastern Oklahoma. It is durable, easily
yanked out or mowed over if you don't want it in a
certain location, and very attractive with or without
blooms.

We have it at the base of our Black Walnut tree,
at the entrance to our yard and even placed in our
walkway here and there.

Apparently it must grow differently here, as it is not a
pest at all, and quite easy to keep in order. A simple
whoosh of the Weed Eater does it for me.

My experience with this plant has been positive. We planted it about six years ago, in a spot of packed clay which wraps around our deck, in which nothing would grow. It has grown there, and stayed there. I can see how it could be invasive if left completely alone, but it has not been an invasive problem for us. It has been reasonably easy to keep it out of our lawn, which is right next to that area. We mow over or pull up any little plants that migrate out of its allocated space, and that has done the trick for the last six years. It can be a rather scruffy, weedy looking plant when it is not flowering, but can be trimmed up, and is much nicer to look at than muddy or dusty clay.

I had Crown Vetch until a few years ago; at least I think I got it all out. I bought it because it was supposed to be a "beautiful ground cover." Well, it did cover the ground. The flowers were nice, but not enough to let it take over. I dug at it for years and finally got it under control. My information says it is hardy to zone 3.

Not necessarily surprising there were no negatives on this plant as it actually was being intentionally introduced and planted to control roadside erosion after construction. Like most members of the pea and bean family, Crown Vetch can fix nitrogen from the air into the soil. This was one of the reasons It was touted as being the miracle plant UNTIL it began to escape everywhere. Live and learn. What's really scary is that the plant was also used to stabilize steep embankments, slopes, ravines, and neglected areas so that nobody had to mow them. I wonder if the past decades of not having to mow those areas will make up for the next few decades those same people will be battling this beast? To the best of my knowledge, the widespread practice of using this plant to stabilize anything has long been abandoned. A few pockets may exist. The Army Corps Of Engineers has a Noxious and Nuisance Plant Management Information System Web site that provides information on how to control this species.

Coronilla varia is an extremely vigorous deciduous groundcover that will most probably require the use of chemicals to eradicate as it is quite difficult to control. It is a serious threat to natural communities because of its prolific ability to seed and its phenomenal ability to spread by underground rhizomes. Basically if you miss a piece when digging it up it will laugh at you and come back to make you miserable.

Did I mention it was fire resistant? Well, it is which means that prescribed burns will have little or no effect on the plant as the rhizomes are protected under the soil.

The irony of this entire situation is that we have now learned that these plants weren't all they were cracked up to be at erosion control because their roots have been found to be quite weak.

I have to agree with the above. While it probably does have benefits for erosion control, when you take it out of that environment, it goes everywhere.
Definitely not for the home garden. It does have a nice flower, and good foliage, but it smothers everything in sight.
It does seem to prefer slopes, as it has taken over the hill below our pond, and the hilly gravel driveway leading up to our house. It actually grew in a pile of gravel that we left out for a single season.

It surprises me that there are no negatives for crown vetch. I guess most of us don't expect to see it in a decorative plant list. As we say in the retail plant trade when asked if we carry it... "Not intentionally"
Very invasive and almost impossible to irradicate

This plant is used beneficailly by many highway departments and authorities in the seeding of rights-of-way, especially on slopes. It should be planted along with an inoculant.

Since this is the case, a nurse grasss is often specified in one of the prescribed seed mixtures.

It usually establishes slowly, given the sparse food and water available where planted. However - unlike almost all alternative plantings, it can survive and thrive even under the toughest conditions, stabilising slopes, improving the soil with its nitrogen capturing capabilities, and providing a very thick erosion control blanket. In this case its invasiveness is a major asset.

A herbaceous perennial from Europe and North Africa.

Has pinnate, mid-green leaves divided into 7-12 leaflets. Bears 10-20, small, purple, pink or white, pea like flowers arranged like a small crown.

Flowers late May-August

Likes a well-drained, fertile, light soil in full sun.

Whole plant has a straggling habit and being a legume will add nitrogen to the soil it grows in.

Sprawling legume brought to the New World to serve as a ground cover and which subsequently escaped into the wild.