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four-seed vetch, lentil tare, lentil vetch, slender vetch, smooth tare, sparrow vetch

Habit Herbs annual, sparsely pubescent.
Stems

sprawling or climbing, filiform, 1–5 dm.

Leaves

1–4 cm;

tendrils simple or branched;

stipules much smaller than leaflets, semisagittate, without nectariferous patch;

leaflets 4–12, blades oblanceolate or elliptic to linear, 6–20 × 1–5 mm, apex acute to apiculate, surfaces glabrous or sparsely villous.

Inflorescences

1–3-flowered, 1–3 cm, equal to or longer than subtending leaf rachis.

Flowers

3–6 mm;

calyx base symmetric, lobes unequal, longer than or equal to tube;

corolla light purple to pale lavender, banner stenonychioid, blade equal to claw, glabrous;

style compressed abaxially, sparsely pubescent apically.

Legumes

yellow to light brown, oblong, 10–15 × 3–4 mm, tip rounded, stigma attached to center of curve, glabrous;

stipe to 1 mm.

Seeds

4, greenish gray to purplish black, subglobose, 1.5–2 mm diam.;

hilum encircling 1/5–1/4 circumference of seed.

2n

= 14.

Vicia tetrasperma

Phenology Flowering Apr–Jun.
Habitat Fields, roadsides, waste areas, woodlands.
Elevation 0–2000 m. (0–6600 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CA; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; ID; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MS; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SC; TN; TX; VA; VT; WA; WV; BC; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC; SPM; Europe [Introduced in North America; introduced also in s South America (Chile)]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Vicia tetrasperma var. tenuissima Druce in the sense of M. L. Fernald (1950), and listed as a separate variety of V. tetrasperma, is considered here and by D. Isely (1990) as a synonym of V. tetrasperma.

(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. 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. villosa
Synonyms Ervum tetraspermum
Name authority (Linnaeus) Schreber: Spic. Fl. Lips., 26. (1771)
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