Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Vicia villosa
Common name
Russian vetch
Family
Fabaceae
Where found
Grassy areas, roadsides, and other disturbed sites. Coast and ranges north from Wollongong. Tablelands. Canberra. Occasional elsewhere.
subsp. eriocarpa: Sydney area, tablelands, and Canberra. Occasional elsewhere.
subsp. villosa: Sydney area north from Campbelltown. Rare elsewhere.
Notes
Introduced annual or rarely biennial herb, trailing or climbing, to 2 m tall. Stems hairy to hairless. Leaves alternating up the stems, 5-11 cm long excluding the tendril at the tip, compound, with 4-24 leaflets. Leaflets each mostly 0.5-3.5 cm long, 1-8 mm wide, tips with a short mucro, surfaces hairy to hairless. Stipules entire, without glands. Flowers 10-20 mm long, pea shaped, with 5 petals, 2 joined together to form the keel, purplish red to violet or blue, sometimes with white or yellow wings. Flower stalks longer than the flowers. Flowers in clusters of 2-40 flowers. Flowers mainly winter–spring.
subsp. eriocarpa: Stems appressed-hairy to more or less hairless. Leaflets mostly 0.5–1.5 cm long, 1–5 mm wide. Stipules less than 3 mm wide. Lower calyx teeth shorter than the calyx tube. Pods hairy.
subsp. villosa: Leaflets mostly 1–3.5 cm long, 2–8 mm wide. Stems with dense spreading hairs. Stipules 2–5 mm wide. Lower calyx teeth as long as or longer than the calyx tube. Pods hairless.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Vicia~villosa (accessed 29 March, 2021)
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