Sainfoin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Onobrychis vicifolia
|
||||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||||
|
Sainfoins (Onobrychis) are Eurasian perennial herbs that have pale pink flowers and curved pods. O. vicifolia is naturalized in Britain and North America grasslands on calcareous soils. The Flora Europaea lists 23 species of Onobrychis.
This highly nutritious plant is an important forage crop and source of honey in Britain. This is because the plant is rich in tannins which protect proteins from hydrolysis in the rumen allowing the protein to be absorbed in the abomasum. The plant has a deep taproot and so is very drought-resistant, but does not recover well from grazing and has poor persistence.
- Flowers: June-September.
- Distribution: grassland, cultivated land, waste places in throughout Europe as far north as southern Sweden.
- Leaves: pinnate, alternate, 6 to 14 pairs, oblong to linear.
A species, Onobrychis caput galii, is known as the "Cock's Head" in English (cf. Latin caput galii).
Onobrychis species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Coleophora colutella (recorded on O. saxatilis).
