SPECIES DESCRIPTION
VICIA SIBTHORPII
Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE
Common Names:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:-- None
Meaning:- Vicia (L) Binder, to bind, a name used by the Roman naturalist and
philosopher Pliny for vetch.
Sibthorpii (L) For professor Humphrey Sibthorp (1713-97, of Oxford,
and his son John (1758-97), English botanist.
General description:- Perennial with a slender woody stock, greyish-green and
villous throughout.
Stems:-
1) Generally 30-50 cm. suberect, sparingly branched.
Leaves:-
1) Leaflets, 6-12 pairs, 5-20 x 2-6 mm, elliptical, oblong-elliptical or linear-elliptical.
2) Stipules, simple or sagittate, narrowly lanceolate.
Flowers:-
1) Racemes, lax, 8- to 25-flowered.
2) Peduncles, equalling or exceeding subtending leaf.
3) Calyx, campanulate, gibbous;
a) teeth, unequal, the longest slightly shorter than the tube, the upper very short
and broad.
4) Corolla, 12-15 mm, bluish-purple, sometimes with white wings.
a) standard limb, equalling or longer than the claw.
Fruit:-
1) Legume, 12-20 x 5-6 mm, brown, densely villous, tapering ± symmetrically at
both ends, stipe, equalling.the calyx.
2) Seeds, 4-8; hilum 1/6 of the circumference.
Key features:-
1) Racemes, lax, 8- to 25-flowered.
2) Leaflets, 6-12 pairs.
4) Legume, tapering ± symmetrically at both ends, stipe, equalling.the calyx.
Habitat:- Open woodland, dry open shrubby vegetation, field margins. (0-)300-1200
m.
Distribution:- S. Aegean region. Fairly rare on Crete mainly central east.
Flowering time:- Apr-June.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton
