Yellow-vetch (Vicia lutea)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vascular plant > flowering plant > Herbaceous plant |
| Red List Status: | Near Threatened (Not Relevant) [NT(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Vicia lutea |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | L. |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | in Stroh et al., 2014 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | This annual herb is presumed to be native in coastal habitats including sea-cliffs, scrubby grassland, and shingle; inland it is mainly an introduced casual although some populations are persistent on waysides. Detecting trends in distribution are complicated by the difficulty in differentiating native from alien occurrences as well as casual alien occurrences which give the appearance of a long term decline. However, it does appear to have declined on the coast in England and was therefore assessed as VU (Stroh et al., 2014). |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Coastal populations appear to be native and are declining. The reasons for this are poorly understood but are probably as a result of succession due to changes in management, principally the loss of grazing on coastal slopes and cliff tops, but also because of coastal developments leading to habitat loss. Recovery will require research into it habitat requirements, threats and management to restore the habitat conditions it requires. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | This species could benefit from the reintroduction of grazing management and scrub clearance along stetches of cliffs in southwest and southern England as part of large-scale initiatives to restore coastal cliff slope communities. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 2. Biological status assessment exists |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Unknown |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - sufficient |
| Species Comments: |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Research is needed into the autecology of this species, in particular it precise habitat requirements and management as well as its ability to regenerate and the threats it faces in coastal habitats.
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Depending on the findings of the status review, identify key sites for the species where recovery measures are needed, such as the reintroduction of grazing and scrub removal.
Action targets: 5. Remedial action identified
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: 3-5 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 5 sites
High priority sites: To be determined
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.