Flower of sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia)

A Meadow Beauty: Sainfoin

Posted on by Ann Mackay

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The flowers of sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) were sprinkled throughout the meadow that I wrote about in last week’s post. It’s a plant that I had never seen before. I was enchanted by the spikes of delicate pink flowers with darker pink veining, so I took the opportunity to photograph it.

Reading up about this grassland plant afterwards, I discovered that it is a native of Europe and Asia. Sainfoin is an ancient forage crop grown to feed cattle, sheep and horses. It fell from favour in modern times but is apparently making a comeback. The plant has several benefits, including controlling worms in grazing animals and improving the quality of the soil by fixing nitrogen. (The common names of ‘healthy hay’ and ‘holy hay’ reflect the benefits to livestock.)

But it’s not the usefulness to animals that caught my attention. I’m far more interested in the benefits that sainfoin offers to bees and other pollinators. Apparently sainfoin produces large amounts of both pollen and nectar, making it very attractive to pollinating insects, including bumblebees and butterflies.

This suggests that it would be worth growing in a selection of wildflowers for a semi-wild area that will be a habitat for wildlife. It’s an idea that appeals to me greatly, but I would need to be able to fit my wild patch into a small space. A possibility for next year… 🙂

Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) with ox-eye daisies
Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia) with ox-eye daisies

Published by Ann Mackay

Photographer, mixed-media art adventurer and completely daft about plants.......

19 thoughts on “A Meadow Beauty: Sainfoin”

  1. Pretty flowers indeed. Easy to see why you’d want to photograph them.

    ‘Healthy hay’ is what sain foin means in French. The fact that it sounds exactly the same as saint foin has led to the alternate (and mistaken) English name ‘holy hay.’

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    1. Yes, the pronunciation of the two being the same must be confusing in other cases too. I was intrigued by the similarity to Scots ‘saining’ – ritual conferring of a blessing or protection, especially at times like New Year. But that’s coincidental, with the words having different origins.

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    1. I wonder what it would be like planted in the garden – it’s supposed to improve the soil by making nitrogen available to other plants. It could be an interesting experiment and a feast for visiting bees too.

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  4. Believe it or not, I once wrote a post titled “The Saining of Speech,” and yes, indeed: it had to do with culture in your part of the world. What’s brand new to me is that flower. My goodness, it’s beautiful. The veining seems unusual. I can’t remember seeing another flower with that sort of pattern, although they surely must exist. Given that meadow-type environments are being developed in church yards in England, it must be possible to fit them into smaller spaces.

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    1. Here we are encouraged to allow even just a small patch of grass to grow long and to allow some wildflowers to grow there, so yes, I think that a mini-meadow has possibilities. I have a sunny corner of the garden in mind – there’s an informal seat there, so it could be a spot for watching the bees get busy. 🙂

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    1. Steve, you made me realise that I might confuse readers into thinking ‘meadow beauty’ was a common name for the plant, rather than just my title – so I added an ‘A’ at the start. But I do think it makes an excellent name for a wildflower. (And they’re now on my list of plants to grow) 🙂

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