LATHYRUS ANNUUS

Family and Genus:- See- LEGUMINOSAE

Common Names:- Annual yellow vetchling

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Lathyrus (Gr) The ancient name for chickling pea.

Annuus (L) One year, annual.

General description:- Medium to tall, weak-stemmed, scrambling annual.

Stem:-

1) 40-100 cm, winged.

Leaves:-

1) ±-paired, ending in a branched tendril.

2) Petiole, winged, to 30 mm long.

3) Leaflets, linear-elliptical, usually 40-100 x 5-12 mm. forming a "V", like blades of

grass.

4) Stipules, 2 long, less than 1,5 mm across, extremely sharp and herbaceous.

Flowers:-

1) Racemes, usually shorter the than subtending leaf, with 1-4 flowers.

2) Calyx, not gibbous:

a) teeth, triangular, subequal, 2.5-4 mm, about as long as the tube.

3) Corolla, 12-15 mm, salmon-pink, orange-yellow or yellow with reddish veins.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, broadly linear, 50-65 x 7-12 mm, pale brown, glandular when young,

glabrescent.

a) upper suture, not winged.

b) valves, obliquely reticulate.

2) Seeds, 6-8, globose, tuberculate.

a) hilum, 1/10-1/9 of the circumference.

Key features:-

1) Corolla, 12-18 mm.

2) Legume, 7-12 mm wide.

3) Calyx-teeth, equalling or slightly longer than the tube.

4) Seeds, tuberculate or papillose.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Seasonally damp scrub, olive groves, field margins. 0-700(-1100) m.

Distribution:- Widespread throughout the Mediterranean extending to N Iran,

Afghanistan and C Asia. Fairly widespread and scattered across Crete.

Flowering time:- Late Mar-May occasionally later.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton