Carolina vetch
Vicia caroliniana
A genus split is not a placement verdict.
Is this one for your yard?
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No, Carolina vetch is not fire resistant; North Carolina firewise guidance rates it highly flammable and advises keeping it away from structures.
NC State University’s cooperative extension and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave Carolina vetch an extreme rating in 2005. That was the highest level on their four-part scale, where both high and extreme meant avoid. NC State Extension’s 2025 revision calls the vine highly flammable instead, but this is not evidence that the plant became safer. The revised three-part scale dropped the extreme category, placing former extreme species in the high group, which still means avoid.
The extension service’s live Plant Toolbox also places Vicia caroliniana under its high-flammability tag. That finding is supporting confirmation rather than the main basis for the verdict because the Toolbox does not document who assigned its ratings. Even so, all three findings point in the same practical direction.
Carolina vetch is a member of the bean family native across broad parts of the eastern and central United States. Its place in the highest-risk category changed only because the newer scale changed. For landscaping near a house or other structure, the guidance remains to keep Carolina vetch at a distance.
- Form
- vine
- Rated in
- NC; North Carolina; North Carolina / southeastern US
