Flora of New Zealand Series

vetch

Slender to stout scrambling or tufted annual; stem sparsely hairy. Lvs sparsely to densely hairy; tendrils branched; leaflets in (3)-4-8 pairs, often alternate, linear to elliptic to obovate, (5)-10-30-(40) mm long; stipules simple or with 1, adaxial, basal lobe, or dentate, usually with a dark spot. Infl. much < lvs, 1-2-(4)-flowered. Peduncle much < fls, rarely ± = fls. Pedicel 1-5 mm long. Calyx somewhat gibbous at base; calyx teeth ± equal, <, =, or > tube. Corolla usually purple, reddish purple or rose, sometimes white or pink, (8)-12-28 mm long; limb of standard > claw. Pod ± glabrous or puberulent, blackish or brownish black, constricted or not between seeds, 5-12-seeded, (20)-30-60 mm long; seeds light or dark brown with dark spots; hilum ⅙-⅕ of circumference.

N.; S.: common to abundant throughout; St.: lowland disturbed areas, Codfish Id; K., Ch.

W. and S. Europe to W. Asia, N. Africa 1867

Waste places, grassland, coastal sites, gardens, forest margins, palustral.

FL Aug-Jun.

V. sativa is a very common weed throughout N.Z. and varies greatly in lf form, the number of fls per infl., and in fl. and pod size. This variability may often be related to habitat with reduced narrow-leaved plants occurring in dry stony sites, and more robust broader-leaved plants in wet situations. Plants may vary greatly within a single naturalised population and several lf forms may be borne on a single plant at different stages of its development. In Europe the sp. also varies in chromosome number, but gene exchange occurs between plants of different chromosome numbers and so creates a more or less continuous range of variation, usually treated as vars or subspp. Some N.Z. material can be satisfactorily placed in var. sativa (a stout plant with broad leaflets; calyx teeth = or > tube; corolla > 18 mm long; pod slightly constricted between seeds) or var. angustifolia L., the narrow-leaved vetch, sometimes treated as V. angustifolia (L.) L., or V. sativa subsp. nigra (L.) Ehrh. (a slender plant with narrow leaflets; calyx teeth < tube; corolla < 18 mm long; pod not constricted between seeds). However, many plants are intermediate in form and it seems best to simply treat most specimens as V. sativa sens. lat.  V. sativa is distinguished by the lvs with 4-8 pairs of leaflets, the large fls in short racemes, and the ± equal calyx teeth (Fig. 69).