VICIA VILLOSA subsp. VARIA

Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE/Sect. CRACCA

Common Name:- Fodder vetch

Homotypic Synonyms:- Vicia dasycarpa

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

philosopher Pliny for vetch.

Villosa (L) With long rough hairs, shaggy, villous.

Varia (L) Differing, changing, diverse, varying.

General description:- Short to tall clambering, hairy annual.

Stems:- To 2 m, though often less. with long hairs.

Leaves:-

1) Leaflets, 4-12 pairs, (8-)10-30 x 2-8 mm, narrow, parallel-sided or elliptical,

tendrils branched.

2) Stipules, entire.

Flowers:-

1) Racemes, 10-30-flowered.

2) Calyx, campanulate, strongly gibbous at the base.

a) teeth, all shorter than the tube, hairless or covered in flat laying soft hairs.

3) Corolla, 10-16(-18) mm:

a) standard limb, c. ½ as long as the claw.

b) wings violet, purple, blue or white.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, 20-40 x (4-)6 mm brown, stipitate, glabrous.

2) Seeds, 2-8; hilum 1/12-1/5 of the circumference.

Key features:-

1) Legume, glabrous.

2) Racemes, 10- to 30-flowered.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Evergreen and deciduous scrub, pastures, roadside thickets, open

woodland, field margins, coastal habitats. 0-1300 m.

Distribution:- True distribution uncertain, but known from the Aegean area.

Sparsely scattered across Crete.

Flowering time:- Mainly Apr-June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton