VICIA VILLOSA subsp. ERIOCARPA

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

Common Names:- None

Homotypic Synonyms:- Vicia eriocarpa

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

philosopher Pliny for vetch.

Villosa (L) With long rough hairs, shaggy, villous.

Eriocarpa (L) With woolly fruits.

General description:- Short to tall clambering, hairy annual.

Stems:-

1) To 2 m, though often less, with long hairs.

Leaves:-

1) Leaflets, 4-12 pairs, 5-15(-20) x 1-5 mm, narrow, parallel-sided or elliptical.

tendrils branched.

2) Stipules, entire.

Flowers:-

1) Racemes, 5-20-flowered.

2) Calyx, campanulate, strongly gibbous at the base.

a) teeth, all shorter than the tube, hairless or covered in flat laying soft hairs.

3) Corolla, 10-16(-18) mm:

a) standard limb, c. ½ as long as the claw.

b) wings violet, purple, blue or white.

Fruit:-

1) Legume, 20-40 x (4-)6 mm brown, stipitate, pubescent.

2) Seeds, 2-8; hilum 1/12-1/5 of the circumference.

Key features:-

1) Legume, glabrous or glabrescent.

2) Racemes, 5-20-flowered, usually longer than leaves.

3) Corolla violet or purple, sometimes with white or yellow wings.

Habitat:- Evergreen and deciduous scrub, pastures, roadside thickets, open

woodland, field margins, coastal habitats. 0-1300 m.

Distribution:- Scattered across the Aegean area. Rare on Crete currently known

only from the Lefka Ori and the Katharo plain in the Dikti mountains.

Flowering time:- Mainly Apr-June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton