Vicia faba |
|
---|---|
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 |
CA; CT; DC; MA; MD; ME; NY; OR; PA; VT; WA; sw Asia; n Africa [Introduced in North America] |
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 | |
Sibling taxa | |
Name authority | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 737. (1753) |
Web links |