Flora of North America species comparison

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Vicia nigricans

Vicia lutea

black vetch, giant vetch, spring vetch, tiny vetch

smooth yellow vetch, yellow vetch
Habit Herbs annual.
Stems

erect, sprawling, or climbing, slender to robust, 2–6 dm.
Leaves

2–6 cm;

tendrils simple or branched;

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

leaflets 6–16, blades oblong to lanceolate-linear, 8–20 × 1–5 mm, apex obtuse to truncate-emarginate, abaxial surface sparsely pubescent, hairs long, pustulose-based, adaxial glabrous.
Inflorescences

1–3-flowered, 0 cm.
Flowers

18–25 mm;

calyx base symmetric, lobes unequal, abaxial lobe subequal to tube;

corolla pale to bright yellow, banner stenonychioid, blade much longer than claw, glabrous;

style compressed abaxially, pubescent apically, tufted abaxially.
Legumes

reddish black, elliptic, 25–35 × 7–14 mm, oblique-tipped, pilose, hairs tuberculate-based;

stipe to 3–4 mm.
Seeds

3–9, blackish and ± mottled, or velvety to entirely black, compressed-globose, 3 mm diam.;

hilum whitish, linear, encircling 1/6–1/5 circumference of seed.
2n

= 14.

Vicia nigricans

Vicia lutea
Phenology Flowering Apr–May.
Habitat Roadsides, fields.
Elevation 0–500 m. (0–1600 ft.)
Distribution
from USDA
w North America; s South America (Argentina, Chile)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; CA; FL; LA; NC; OR; TX; c Europe; s Europe; w Asia; n Africa [Introduced in North America]
[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.)
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. disperma, V. faba, V. floridana, V. grandiflora, V. hassei, V. hirsuta, V. lathyroides, V. leucophaea, V. ludoviciana, 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) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 736. (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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