Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Vicia sativa
Common name
Narrow-leaved vetch (subsp. nigra), Common vetch (subsp. sativa)
Family
Fabaceae
Where found
Woodland, pastures, roadsides and other disturbed sites, and moist areas. Widespread.
subsp. nigra Widespread.
subsp. sativa Coast and ranges north from near Wollongong. Occasionally elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced annual herb, trailing or twining, stems to 1.2 m long. Stems hairy to more or less hairless. Leaves alternating up the stems, 2-11 cm long excluding the tendril at the tip, compound, with 4-18 leaflets. Leaflets each 0.5-4 cm long, 1-15 mm wide, tips squared off to notched, with a small abrupt point, surfaces white or grey-hairy to hairless. Stipules mostly mostly lobed with a prominent yellowish central gland. Flowers 8-30 mm long, pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel, pink or mauve to reddish purple or violet. Flowers almost stalkless, or the flower stalks shorter than the flowers. Flowers in clusters of 1-4 flowers. Flowers Winter to Spring.
subsp. nigra has leaflets 1-4 mm wide, flowers 8-18 mm long, pod brown, turning black when mature. Was Vicia sativa subsp. angustifolia.
subsp. sativa has leaflets 2-12 mm wide, flowers 17-30 mm long, pod brown or yellow brown when mature.
PlantNET description of species and key to subspecies: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Vicia~sativa (accessed 8 February, 2021)
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