The low climbing vines with slender stems to 6-feet long and purple flowers sprawls over grasses, boulders, and low shrubs. The midrib (rachis) of the long, compound leaves of all vetches  extends to form a branching, twining tendril. Note the purple, pea-like flowers, tendrils, and hairless calyx (sepals holding the petals).

FLOWER: May–September. Flowers bloom in a loose, one-sided cluster on a 3/4–2 5/8-inch long (18–67 mm) stalk (raceme) from the leaf axils. Each cluster has 1–9, purple to lavender, bilaterally symmetrical flowers, 1/2–1 inch (12–25 mm) long. The 5 petals form an upper notched banner, 2 side wings, with the 2 lower united into a keel. Note the sepals (calyx) are hairless. Fruit is a 1–1 3/4-inch long, slender, flattish pod.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blade pinnately compound with 8–18 leaflets, each 5/8–1 3/8-inches long (15–35 mm) by 1/4–9/16-inch wide (6–14 mm), variable from elliptic to oval or lance-shaped, and generally hairless on both sides. A twining, branching tendril extends from the leaf tip.

ELEVATION: 7,000–11,000 feet.

HABITAT: Gravelly, loam soils, meadows, stream sides, roadsides, trails, disturbed areas; pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-Douglas fir, spruce-fir forests.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, NM, NV, UT, TX; north to Great Lakes, Canada.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Highly variable, American Vetch has been divided into 9 varieties and 4 subspecies. The common subspecies in NM is subsp. ludovidiana. Subsp. minor (occurring in El Malpais National Monument) has narrow almost thread-like leaflets. NM has 6 species of Vica. The widespread Louisiana Vetch, V. ludoviciana, has smaller pale-blue flowers, only 1/4-inch (5–8 mm) long, and hairy sepals (calyx).

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in NM mountains (not reported on eastern plains) in mid- to high-elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, De Baca, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Guadalupe, Harding, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, Valencia.