Trying to ID

Hello! And Help!

This is a new weed that has just sprung up this spring with much vigor! It is inbedding itself quite effectively into different locations in my lawn. It vines in throughout the grass killing everything below it. To look at it with my very beginner eyes it looks much like the peas I grew years ago. Its viney, with long green pods and pretty, delicate purple flowers.

I've tried ID'ing it online with not much luck.

I am in Santa Rosa County in Northwest Florida.

An ID would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much and I apologize in advance for also, obviously, being a beginning photographer! :)

It looks like vetch (Vicia sativa)
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/48899/index.html
If not this exact one, then a close relative

Hi Lizzie,

I agree with ec, it is vetch. Thankfully ours is across the creek.

:-)

Thanks So Much!!

I researched only to find that I would be a very happy woman if I kept livestock! :-)

I've started pulling it by hand. It is a job! Our yard is shaggy now as I wont let my husband mow until I get the majority of it. Im sure I wont get it all but the thought of a mower hitting all those seed pods and spreading it more is frightening!

Thanks for the ID!!

Hi Lizzy! It's always nice to see another local DG'er. Does this plant have a rough or sticky feeling to it? I have something similar to this everywhere in my yard and every time I pull it up it leaves a sticky residue on my hands.

Hi EG!! You know, I'll have to check that out. The odd thing this year is that within the patches of the Vetch are also patches of Carolina Gerenium so I end up pulling them both at the same time.

I guess this is the nature of weeds that all of a sudden you just have these varieties that you have never seen before?? The Carolina Gereniums, which I think I Id'ed from an old post of yours, also had never been seen here before this spring and now they are very prolific! Thankfully they are very easy to both find and pull.

Watch out for the weather today Escambiaguy, it looks like that cool front is going to be a doozy coming through!