It is an annual herb producing a slender, often four-sided, hairless to lightly hairy, climbing stem up to 70 to 90 centimeters tall, and known to well exceed one meter at times.

The leaves are tipped with tendrils that support the plant as it climbs, and are made up of up to 10 pairs of elongated leaflets [3] each up to 2 centimeters in length with notched, flat, sharply pointed, or toothed tips.

Each flower is whitish or pale blue, just a few millimeters in length, and short-lived.

For example, hairy vetch is commonly used in cover crops and green manures on farms in North America.

Typically, common vetch or hairy vetch provides the leguminous component of the crop, usually comingled with a grassy component as a nurse crop and an addition of more cellulose to the resultant organic matter (for example, rye or winter wheat).