Securigera
crown vetch
spreading, furrowed or ridged, pubescent or glabrate.
alternate, odd-pinnate;
stipules present, free, membranous [herbaceous], dark-tipped;
petiolate;
leaflets 11–25, blade margins entire, surfaces glabrous.
pedunculate, 6–25-flowered, axillary, umbels [heads];
bracts absent;
bracteoles present.
papilionaceous;
calyx weakly zygomorphic, campanulate, lobes 5;
corolla white, pink, purple, or bicolored [yellow], keel acute;
stamens 10, diadelphous;
anthers basifixed.
loments, stipitate, not or only slightly constricted between seeds, angled in cross-section [cylindric], indehiscent or tardily dehiscent, with weak longitudinal, anastomosing veins, glabrous.
2–12, oblong, smooth;
hilum lateral.
= 6.
Securigera
Species 12 (1 in the flora).
The circumscription of Securigera followed here is that proposed by P. Lassen (1989), who transferred more than half of the species of Coronilla to Securigera and Hippocrepis based on characters other than those of the fruits. The molecular phylogenetic studies by G. J. Allan and J. M. Porter (2000) do not contradict the rearrangement by Lassen, but a sufficient diversity of species of Coronilla and Securigera were not examined to support it firmly.
Three other species of Securigera have been reported from North America, each from a single locality; they appear not to have become naturalized. Securigera securidaca (Linnaeus) Degen & Dörfler, reported from South Carolina, is annual, with a yellow corolla and indehiscent or tardily dehiscent fruit; S. globosa (Lamarck) Lassen (Coronilla globosa Lamarck), reported from New York, is very similar to S. varia, but heads are 15–40-flowered and fruit segments are 9–10 mm; S. cretica (Linnaeus) Lassen (C. cretica Linnaeus), reported from Maryland, is annual, heads are 3–9-flowered, and corollas are white or pink, 4–7 mm.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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