Common Kidney-Vetch vs Common wireweed

Anthyllis vulneraria compared with Sida acuta

Key Differences

• Common Kidney-Vetch is Vulnerable while Common wireweed is Not Evaluated.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Common Kidney-Vetch	Common wireweed
Kingdom same	Plantae (Plants)	Plantae (Plants)
Phylum same	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)	Magnoliophyta (Flowering Plants)
Class same	Magnoliopsida (Dicots)	Magnoliopsida (Dicots)
Order	Fabales (Legumes & Allies)	Malvales (Malvales)
Family	Fabaceae	Malvaceae
Genus	Anthyllis	Sida
Species	Anthyllis vulneraria	Sida acuta

Evolutionary Relationship

Common Kidney-Vetch and Common wireweed share a common ancestor at the Class level: Magnoliopsida. (Dicots)

Conservation Status

Common Kidney-Vetch

VU — Vulnerable

Common wireweed

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Common Kidney-Vetch	Common wireweed
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Common Kidney-Vetch

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, and temperate coniferous forests, among 6 distinct biome types spanning the Indomalayan and Oceanian and Palearctic realms. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (Libya), Asia (Japan), Europe (9 countries), North America (Canada, United States), and Oceania and the Pacific (Australia). Currently classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, this species faces significant conservation challenges across its range.

Common wireweed

Habitat

Inhabits deserts and xeric shrublands within the Afrotropic biogeographic realm. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (18 countries), Asia (18 countries), Europe (Spain), North America (4 countries), Oceania and the Pacific (12 countries), and South America (Brazil, Colombia).

Common Kidney-Vetch

Common Kidney-Vetch (<em>Anthyllis vulneraria</em>) is a flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae, assessed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List due to habitat degradation and agricultural intensification across parts of its range. It is widely distributed across Africa (Libya), Asia (Japan), Europe (nine countries), North America (Canada and the United States), and Oceania (Australia), occupying six distinct biome types and occurring within the Indomalayan and Oceanian biogeographic realms. The species typically grows in dry, calcareous grasslands, coastal cliffs, sand dunes, and rocky slopes, often favoring nutrient-poor soils. It is an important larval food plant for certain butterfly species, particularly the Small Blue butterfly in Europe, and contributes to soil fertility through nitrogen fixation via root nodules. Its cheerful yellow, orange, or red flower heads make it a recognizable component of chalk and limestone grassland communities. Biological traits of this species remain poorly documented in the scientific literature.

Common wireweed

<em>Sida acuta</em>, commonly known as common wireweed or broom jute, is a small woody-based shrub in the family Malvaceae. Its conservation status is listed as Not Evaluated by the IUCN. The species has an extremely broad distribution spanning Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania, reflecting its status as both a native species in parts of tropical and subtropical regions and a widely naturalized weed in disturbed habitats globally. It typically grows in roadsides, cultivated fields, waste ground, and degraded grasslands in warm climates, often colonizing disturbed and compacted soils where few other plants thrive. <em>Sida acuta</em> is a branching perennial shrub typically reaching 50–100 cm in height, with lance-shaped toothed leaves, small pale yellow five-petaled flowers, and distinctive star-shaped stellate hairs on stems and leaves. The plant produces schizocarp fruits that split into individual hard segments each bearing a seed, facilitating dispersal by animals, water, and machinery. Several parts of the plant are used in traditional medicine across its range for treating a variety of conditions. Biological traits including average lifespan, precise height, and mass remain poorly documented in standardized databases. Ecologically, common wireweed is considered an invasive species in many regions, but also provides small-scale cover and foraging habitat for invertebrates in disturbed environments throughout its vast pantropical and warm-temperate global distribution.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 3 countries:

🇦🇺 Australia 🇯🇵 Japan 🇺🇸 United States