VICIA FABA
Common Names:- Broad bean
Homotypic Synonyms:- Faba faba, Faba vulgaris, Orobus faba,
Vicia esculenta, Vicia vulgaris.
Meaning:- Vicia (L) Binder, to bind, a name used by the Roman naturalist and
philosopher Pliny for vetch.
Faba The old Latin name for the broad bean.
General description:- Pubescent, erect annual.
Stems:-
1) 20-60 cm., rather robust, ascending to erect, not climbing.
Leaves:-
1) Without tendrils.
2) Leaflets, 1-3 pairs, 40-80(-100) x 10-20(-40) mm, ovate or elliptical, obtuse or
emarginate, entire or serrate.
3) Stipules, c. 10 mm, entire or dentate.
Flowers:-
1) 1-6 together.
2) Calyx-teeth, unequal, the lower longer than the tube.
3) Corolla, 10-30 mm, usually white with black wings.
Fruit:-
1) Legume, 80-200 x 10-20 mm, densely pubescent but becoming sparsely covered
with short soft hairs, or down when mature.
2) Seeds 20-30 mm, ovoid-oblong, flattened laterally.
Key features:-
1) Standard, glabrous, on the back.
2) All leaves without a tendril.
3) Corolla, white with black wings, rarely purple.
4) Legume, 80 mm or more, pubescent.
Habitat:- Cultivated and waste places, roadsides, dry open shrubby vegetation and
bushy areas.
Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean. Widespread
and common on Crete. Introduced.
Flowering time:- Feb-June.
Photos by:- Steve Lenton