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broad bean, broad or fava or horse bean, broad vetch, fava bean, horse bean

Habit Herbs annual.
Stems

erect, stout, 5–20 dm.

Leaves

1–7 cm;

tendrils absent;

stipules foliose, approaching leaflets in size, broadly semisagittate, with nectariferous patch abaxially;

leaflets 2–6, blades elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, 40–100 × 10–30 mm, apex obtuse, surfaces glabrous.

Inflorescences

2–4-flowered, to 1 cm, much shorter than subtending leaf rachis.

Flowers

20–30 mm;

calyx base symmetric, lobes unequal, longer than tube;

corolla white with purple mottling, banner stenonychioid, blade longer than claw, glabrous;

style compressed abaxially, pubescent apically, tufted abaxially.

Legumes

dark brown to black, linear, 80–200 × 10–30 mm, oblique-tipped, sparsely pubescent;

stipe 1–2 mm.

Seeds

2–4, purplish, greenish, or black, sometimes spotted gray, globose and 7–9 mm diam., or strongly compressed and 12–35 mm diam.;

hilum large, terminal, blackish, encircling 1/6–1/5 circumference of seed.

2n

= 12, 14.

Vicia faba

Phenology Flowering Jun–Aug.
Habitat Roadsides, waste areas.
Elevation 0–800 m. (0–2600 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; CT; DC; MA; MD; ME; NY; OR; PA; VT; WA; sw Asia; n Africa [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Vicia faba has been domesticated and is grown as a vegetable crop and for forage in temperate and subtropical areas worldwide.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Vicia
Sibling taxa
V. acutifolia, V. americana, V. benghalensis, V. caroliniana, V. cracca, V. disperma, V. floridana, V. grandiflora, V. hassei, V. hirsuta, V. lathyroides, V. leucophaea, V. ludoviciana, V. lutea, V. minutiflora, V. narbonensis, V. nigricans, V. ocalensis, V. pannonica, V. pulchella, V. sativa, V. sepium, V. tetrasperma, V. villosa
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 737. (1753)
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