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black vetch, giant vetch, spring vetch, tiny vetch

European vetch, two-seed vetch

Habit Herbs annual.
Stems

sprawling, 2–6 dm.

Leaves

3–6 cm;

tendrils usually branched;

stipules much smaller than leaflets, semisagittate;

leaflets 12–20, blades narrowly elliptic to linear, 7–12 × 1–5 mm, apex blunt to acute and mucronulate, surfaces glabrous or puberulent.

Inflorescences

2–5-flowered, 2–5 cm, somewhat shorter than subtending leaf rachis.

Flowers

4–5 mm;

calyx base symmetric, lobes unequal, lateral lobes equal to tube;

corolla blue, banner pandurate, blade 2 times length of claw, glabrous;

style compressed adaxially, pubescent apically.

Legumes

tawny, oblong-subrhomboidal, 12–16 × 5–7 mm, glabrous; short-stipitate.

Seeds

2, purplish black, compressed-globose, 4–5 mm diam.;

hilum encircling 1/6 circumference of seed.

Vicia nigricans

Vicia disperma

Phenology Flowering Apr–May.
Habitat Disturbed areas.
Elevation 0–100 m. (0–300 ft.)
Distribution
from USDA
w North America; s South America (Argentina, Chile)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; Europe [Introduced in North America]
[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.)

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. cracca, 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
Name authority Hooker & Arnott: Bot. Beechey Voy., 20. (1830) de Candolle: Cat. Hort. Monsp., 154. (1813)
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