PULSE FAMILY 



LEGUMINOS.E PULSE FAMILY 



Vicia sativa, L. 



Purple to magenta pink Common Vetch, 



Spring Vetch, 



May- August Pebble Vetch, 



Tarr. 



Vicia: for derivation see Cracca. 

 Sativa: Latin for "sown." 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: wheat fields and waste places. 

 In Europe extensively cultivated for fodder. 



THE PLANT: spreading, slightly erect or climbing, one foot 

 to three feet high; the stem with short, soft hairs or no 

 hairs; the stipules broad, generally sharp-toothed. 



THE LEAVES: alternate; pinnately divided, the leaflets two 

 to fourteen, obovate, oblong or oblanceolate, obtuse, cut 

 off suddenly or mucronate at the apex, narrowed at the 

 base. 



THE FLOWERS : one or two in the axils of the leaves, sessile 

 or on short peduncles. 



THE FRUIT: a linear-oblong, hairless pod, five to ten seeded. 



The most important botanical question about the Vicia 

 sativa is, how it differs from the other Vicias. An easy 

 distinction is to remember that the flowers of Vicia sativa 

 are chiefly in twos, in the upper axils of the leaves and 

 are purple, but those of the cracca and of the villosa are 

 violet and white, and crowded in one-sided racemes. A 

 still further distinction is that older plants of Vicia sativa 

 become practically hairless. 



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