VICIA MELANOPS

Family:- LEGUMINOSAE/Sect. VICIA

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Vicia (L) Binder, to bind, a name used by the Roman naturalist and

philosopher Pliny for vetch.

Melanops (L) Black-eyed.

General description:- Scrambling pubescent annual.

Stems:- 20-70 cm tall.

Leaves:-

1) Leaflets 5-10 pairs, 5-20 × 2-8 mm, oblong to obovate, obtuse to emarginate,

stipules small, entire, tendril branched.

2) Uppermost leaves, (above the flowers), pale greenish-yellow.

Flowers:-

1) (1-)2-4 in short-pedicellate axillary clusters.

2) Calyx-teeth unequal, the lower equalling the tube.

3) Mouth of the calyx tube oblique, teeth unequal.

4) Corolla 15-22 mm; standard tawny greenish-yellow, wings dull purplish-black.

Fruit:-

1) Legume 20-50(-80) × 6-12 mm, brown, glabrous, margin tuberculate, pubescent.

2) Seeds 4-7; hilum 1/5-1/4 of the circumference.

Key features:-

1) Uppermost leaves (above ?owers) pale greenish-yellow.

2) Standard tawny greenish-yellow, wings dull purplish-black.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Seasonally damp spots in scrub, open woodland and olive groves, 0-800

Distribution:- lrregularly distributed throughout the Greek mainland and

Peloponnisos. - Also in C Italy, Balkan Peninsula and W Anatolia.

Previously unrecorded from Crete, found near the village of Flathiakes, by Stavros

Skarl, July 2023..

Flowering time:- End of March to early June.

Photos by:- Stavros Skarl