VICIA HYBRIDA

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

Common Names:- Hairy yellow vetchling

Homotypic Synonyms:- Hypechusa hybrida, Vicia linnaei, Vicia lutea subsp.

hybrida, Vicioides hybrida.

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

philosopher Pliny for vetch.

Hybrida (L) Mongrel, half-breed, hybrid.

General description:- Ascending to erect, rather weak-stemmed, annual.

Stems:-

1) 15-50 cm, appressed-pilose.

Leaves:-

1) Leaflets, 6-15 x 1·5-7 mm, 4-7 pairs, usually obovate, truncate to emarginate,

mucronate.

2) Stipules, small, semi-hastate.

Flowers:-

1) Solitary, short-pedunculate in the leaf axils.

2) Calyx tube, broadly cylindrical, slightly gibbous, with an oblique mouth and

short, unequal teeth, pubescent.

3) Corolla, 20-28 mm, usually pale yellow, often with a purplish-grey tinge;

a) standard, pubescent on back.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, 22-35 x 6-ll mm, oblong, compressed, appressed-pilose, with a short

curved beak.

2) Seeds, 5-6; hilum, 1/10-1/8 of the circumference.

Key features:-

1) Calyx-teeth, unequal.

2) Corolla, 18-30 mm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Scrub, roadsides thickets, olive groves, field margins. 0-1100 m.

Distribution:- Throughout Greece, but less common in the W mainland. -

Widespread in the Mediterranean area and SW to C Asia, Widespread across

Crete.

Flowering time:- Mar to early June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton