Flora of North America species comparison

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Vicia nigricans

Vicia cracca

black vetch, giant vetch, spring vetch, tiny vetch

American vetch, bird vetch, cat peas, cow vetch, tinegrass, tuft vetch
Habit Herbs perennial.
Stems

sprawling or climbing, slender to robust, to 20 dm.
Leaves

2–8 cm;

tendrils usually branched;

stipules foliose, semisagittate, without nectariferous patch;

leaflets 10–28, blades narrowly oblong or elliptic to linear, 10–25 × 2–8 mm, apex obtuse to acute, surfaces glabrate to pilose.
Inflorescences

10–50-flowered, 4–20 cm, equal to or longer than subtending leaf rachis.
Flowers

8–16 mm;

calyx base symmetric to slightly gibbous, lobes unequal, pilose, lateral ones equal to tube;

corolla usually blue-violet or purple, sometimes lilac or whitish, banner pandurate, blade equal to or longer than claw, glabrous;

style compressed adaxially, pubescent apically.
Legumes

tawny, broadly oblong, 15–30 × 6–8 mm, oblique-tipped, glabrous;

stipe to 1.5 mm.
Seeds

4–8, dark grayish to purplish brown, sometimes mottled purple, globose to ellipsoid-ovoid, 2.5–4 mm diam.;

hilum encircling 1/5–1/3 circumference of seed.
2n

= 12, 14, 21, 22, 28.

Vicia nigricans

Vicia cracca
Distribution
from USDA
w North America; s South America (Argentina, Chile)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
North America; Eurasia [Introduced in South America, Australia]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (1 in the flora).

Variety nigricans is known from Pacific coastal areas of southern South America.

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

Varieties ca. 5 (2 in the flora).

Vicia cracca is part of a European species complex (P. W. Ball 1968) and may or may not be native to North America (F. J. Hermann 1960); it is distinguished from the similar V. villosa by a symmetric calyx base and banner blade length equal to claw.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaflet blades elliptic to oblong; inflorescences 20–50-flowered, 1–1.5 times length of subtending leaf rachis; flowers 8–12 mm, banner blades ca. equal to claw.
var. cracca
1. Leaflet blades linear; inflorescences 10–25-flowered, to 2 times length of subtending leaf rachis; flowers 12–16 mm, banner blade 2 times length of claw.
var. angustissima
Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Vicia Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Vicia
Sibling taxa
V. acutifolia, V. americana, V. benghalensis, V. caroliniana, V. cracca, V. disperma, V. faba, V. floridana, V. grandiflora, V. hassei, V. hirsuta, V. lathyroides, V. leucophaea, V. ludoviciana, V. lutea, V. minutiflora, V. narbonensis, V. ocalensis, V. pannonica, V. pulchella, V. sativa, V. sepium, V. tetrasperma, V. villosa
V. acutifolia, V. americana, V. benghalensis, V. caroliniana, V. disperma, V. faba, 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
Subordinate taxa
V. nigricans var. gigantea
V. cracca var. angustissima, V. cracca var. cracca
Name authority Hooker & Arnott: Bot. Beechey Voy., 20. (1830) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 735. (1753)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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