Vicia sativa
| Common vetch | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Vicia sativa flowers and leaves | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Fabales |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Subfamily: | Faboideae |
| Tribe: | Vicieae |
| Genus: | Vicia |
| Species: | V. sativa |
| Binomial name | |
|
Vicia sativa L. |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
Vicia angustifolia L. |
|
Vicia angustifolia L.
Vicia angustifolia Reichard
Vicia cordata Hoppe
Vicia cuneata Gren. & Godr.
Vicia cuneata Guss.
Vicia heterophylla C.Presl
Vicia segetalis Thuill.
Vicia sativa, known as the common vetch, garden vetch, tare or simply vetch, is a nitrogen fixing leguminous plant in the family Fabaceae. Although considered a weed when found growing in a cultivated grainfield, this hardy plant is often grown as green manure or fodder.
There are at least four subspecies generally accepted:
Vicia sativa is a sprawling annual herb, with hollow, four-sided, hairless to sparsely hairy stems which can reach two meters in maximum length.
The leaves are stipulate, alternate and compound, each made up of 3 to 8 opposite pairs of linear, lance-shaped, oblong, or wedge-shaped, needle-tipped leaflets up to 3.5 centimeters long. Each compound leaf ends in a branched tendril.
The pealike flowers occur in the leaf axils, solitary or in pairs. The flower corolla is 1 to 3 centimeters in length and bright pink-purple in color, more rarely whitish or yellow. The flowers are mostly visited by bumblebees.
The fruit is a legume pod up to 6 or 7 centimeters long, which is hairy when new, smooth later, then brown or black when ripe. It contains 4-12 seeds.
Sown for fodder, the seed is sown densely, up to 250 kilograms per hectare. However, when grown for seed, less seed should be used; otherwise the crop will be too thick, reducing flower and seed production. When meant for seed, sowing is done early in the planting season for good returns; but, when for green food, any time in spring is suitable. Sometimes, a full crop can be obtained even when sown as late as summer, though sowing so late is not recommended.
...
Wikipedia