Vicia americana |
Vicia floridana |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
American vetch, purple vetch |
Florida vetch |
|||||
Habit | Herbs perennial. | Herbs perennial. | ||||
Stems | erect, trailing, or climbing, slender to stout, to 20 dm. |
sprawling or climbing, filiform, 3–8 dm. |
||||
Leaves | 2–8 cm; tendrils simple or branched; stipules much smaller than leaflets, semisagittate, without nectariferous patch; leaflets 8–18, blades ovate or elliptic to linear, 3–44 × 1–19 mm, apex obtuse to truncate-emarginate, or apiculate, surfaces glabrous or finely pubescent. |
3–5 cm; tendrils simple; stipules much smaller than leaflets, semisagittate, without nectariferous patch; leaflets 2–6, blades usually broadly elliptic to oblong or oblanceolate, sometimes linear, 7–18 × 2–8 mm, apex obtuse, surfaces glabrous. |
||||
Inflorescences | 3–9-flowered, 2–8 cm, shorter than or equal to subtending leaf rachis. |
2–8-flowered, 2–5 cm, shorter to longer than subtending leaf rachis. |
||||
Flowers | 12–25 mm; calyx base symmetric, lobes subequal, shorter than tube; corolla usually bluish purple, rarely white, banner oblong, blade equal to claw, glabrous; style compressed abaxially, pubescent apically, tufted abaxially. |
5–6 mm; calyx base symmetric, lobes equal, much shorter than tube; corolla white to bluish, banner pandurate, blade equal to claw, glabrous; style compressed adaxially, pubescent apically. |
||||
Legumes | tawny to brown, oblong, 25–39 × 5–9 mm, oblique-tipped, glabrous or pubescent; stipe to 4–5 mm. |
brown to black, broadly oblong, 8–15 × 3–5 mm, oblique-tipped, glabrous; stipe to 1–2 mm. |
||||
Seeds | number not known, olive-brown to deep violet-brown, subglobose, 3–4 mm diam.; hilum encircling 1/4–1/3 circumference of seed. |
1 or 2, purplish black, compressed-globose, 3 mm diam.; hilum encircling 1/2–3/4 circumference of seed. |
||||
Vicia americana |
Vicia floridana |
|||||
Phenology | Flowering Apr–May. | |||||
Habitat | Moist soils, ditches, roadsides. | |||||
Elevation | 0–100 m. [0–300 ft.] | |||||
Distribution |
North America; n Mexico; e Asia
|
FL; GA |
||||
Discussion | Varieties 3 (2 in the flora). Vicia americana consists of a polymorphic assemblage of populations among which leaflet size, shape, and vestiture is variable. Intergradation is widespread. C. R. Gunn (1968) described two relatively distinct entities which may represent the extremes of a continuum of variation in some regions. Variety sinensis C. R. Gunn occurs in eastern Asia. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Vicia floridana is distinguished from V. acutifolia by the broader leaflets (elliptic to lanceolate versus linear) and shorter (8–15 mm versus 20–25 mm) fruits. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||
Key |
|
|||||
Source | FNA vol. 11. | FNA vol. 11. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Muhlenburg ex Willdenow: Sp. Pl. 3: 1096. (1802) | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 14: 292. (1879) | ||||
Web links |