Vicia americana

Last updated

Vicia americana
Vicia americana 5828.JPG
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Tribe: Fabeae
Genus: Vicia
Species:
V. americana
Binomial name
Vicia americana

Vicia americana is a species of legume in the vetch genus known by the common names American vetch and purple vetch. [1] It includes a subspecies known as mat vetch.

Contents

Description

It is a climbing perennial forb that grows from both taproot and rhizome. The leaves are each made up of oblong leaflets and have tendrils for climbing. It bears showy pea like flowers in shades of lavender and fuchsia. The fruit is a hairless flat pod about 3 centimeters long that contains usually two light brown peas. American vetch is widespread across North America.

It is a common understory plant in many types of forest and other habitats such as chaparral and it provides forage for wild and domesticated animals. This vetch is used to reclaim burned or disturbed land, such as that which has been cleared by wildfire or altered by human activities such as mining or construction. It is drought-tolerant and thrives in both dry and moist, and sandy or coarse loamy soil habitats.

Related Research Articles

<i>Vicia sativa</i> Species of flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae

Vicia sativa, known as the common vetch, garden vetch, tare or simply vetch, is a nitrogen-fixing leguminous plant in the family Fabaceae. It is now naturalised throughout the world occurring on every continent, except antarctica and the arctic. The centre of diversity is thought to be the Fertile Crescent, although gold standard molecular confirmation is currently not available.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Forage</span> Plant material eaten by grazing livestock

Forage is a plant material eaten by grazing livestock. Historically, the term forage has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used more loosely to include similar plants cut for fodder and carried to the animals, especially as hay or silage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legume</span> Plant in the family Fabaceae

A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae, or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock forage and silage, and as soil-enhancing green manure. Well-known legumes include beans, soybeans, chickpeas, peanuts, lentils, lupins, grass peas, mesquite, carob, tamarind, alfalfa, and clover. Legumes produce a botanically unique type of fruit – a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces on two sides.

<i>Vicia cracca</i> Species of legume

Vicia cracca, is a species of flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is native to Europe and Asia. It occurs on other continents as an introduced species, including North America, where it is a common weed. It often occurs in disturbed habitats, including old fields and roadside ditches.

<i>Vicia</i> Genus of flowering plants in the bean family Fabaceae

Vicia is a genus of over 240 species of flowering plants that are part of the legume family (Fabaceae), and which are commonly known as vetches. Member species are native to Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa. Some other genera of their subfamily Faboideae also have names containing "vetch", for example the vetchlings (Lathyrus) or the milk-vetches (Astragalus). The lentils are included in genus Vicia, and were formerly classified in genus Lens. The broad bean is sometimes separated in a monotypic genus Faba; although not often used today, it is of historical importance in plant taxonomy as the namesake of the order Fabales, the Fabaceae and the Faboideae. The tribe Vicieae in which the vetches are placed is named after the genus' current name. The true peas (Pisum) are among the closest living relatives of vetches.

<i>Vicia villosa</i> Species of legume

Vicia villosa, known as the hairy vetch, fodder vetch or winter vetch, is a plant native to some of Europe and western Asia. It is a legume, grown as a forage crop, fodder crop, cover crop, and green manure. Although non-native, it occurs in all US states and is considered invasive by some states, such as Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington state — as well as in Japan and some parts of Europe where it is not native. It is also found in most Canadian provinces.

<i>Vicia hirsuta</i> Species of legume

Vicia hirsuta is a species of flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae.

<i>Vicia sepium</i> Species of legume

Vicia sepium or bush vetch is a species of flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. A nitrogen-fixing, perennial, leguminous climbing plant that grows in hedgerows, grasslands, the edges of woodland, roadsides and rough ground. It occurs in western Europe, Crimea of Ukraine, Russia including Siberia, Caucasus and Central Asia. It can also be found in eastern Canada, north-eastern states of the USA and, where suitable habitat occurs, in Greenland. It is native to, and has been recorded in, almost all parts of Britain, Ireland and associated islands.

Bitter vetch is a common name for several plants and may refer to:

<i>Lathyrus linifolius</i> Species of plant

Lathyrus linifolius is a species of pea, commonly called bitter vetch or heath pea. The name bitter vetch is also sometimes used for Vicia ervilia and also for Vicia orobus. The tubers of Lathyrus linifolius were formerly used as an appetite suppressant in medieval Scotland, and this use has brought the plant to recent medical attention. Attempts are being made to cultivate the plant on a commercial scale.

<i>Vicia benghalensis</i> Species of legume

Vicia benghalensis is a species of vetch known by the common names purple vetch and reddish tufted vetch. It is native to southern Europe, North Africa, and nearby islands, and it is utilized elsewhere in agriculture and may be present in the wild as an introduced species. It is an annual herb with a climbing stem which is coated in hairs, often densely, making the plant appear silvery white. Each leaf is made up of several pairs of elongated leaflets which measure up to 3 centimeters in length. The inflorescence is a one-side raceme of several dark reddish purple flowers. Each flower has a densely hairy calyx of sepals and a tubular corolla between one and two centimeters in length. The fruit is a flat, hairy legume pod up to 3.5 centimeters long containing multiple seeds.

<i>Vicia nigricans</i> Species of legume

Vicia nigricans is a species of vetch known by the common name black vetch. It has a disjunct distribution, its two subspecies divided by thousands of miles in range. The northern subspecies, ssp. gigantea, is native to western North America from Alaska to northern California, where it occurs in coastal and moist inland habitat and disturbed areas. The southern subspecies, ssp. nigricans, occurs in southern South America, in Argentina and Chile.

<i>Vicia hassei</i> Species of legume

Vicia hassei is a species of vetch known by the common names Hasse's vetch and slender vetch.

<i>Vicia menziesii</i> Species of legume

Vicia menziesii is a rare species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Hawaiian vetch. It is endemic to Hawaii, where it is known only from the island of Hawaii. It is threatened by habitat loss and exotic plants. It has been federally listed as an endangered species of the United States since 1978. It was the first Hawaiian plant to be placed on the Endangered Species List.

<i>Megoura viciae</i> Species of true bug

Megoura viciae is a large, green aphid in the family Aphididae native to Europe that feeds on plants in the genus Vicia. They are commonly known as vetch aphids for this reason.

<i>Vicia narbonensis</i> Species of plant in the genus Vicia

Vicia narbonensis, called Narbon bean, Narbon vetch, Narbonne vetch and moor's pea, is a widely distributed species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is native to Madeira and the Mediterranean countries through to Central Asia and the western Himalayas, and has been introduced to central and eastern Europe, and scattered other locations. It has some palatability issues, but has potential as a green manure and forage crop, and for its beans. It is the namesake of the Vicia narbonensis species complex.

<i>Vicia grandiflora</i> Species of plant

Vicia grandiflora, commonly known as large yellow vetch and bigflower vetch, as well as large-flowered vetch, is a common herbaceous plant species in the family Fabaceae, which occurs as a native plant species in Europe and Asia, as well as an introduced vetch species in North America.

<i>Vicia tenuifolia</i> Species of plant

Vicia tenuifolia, the fine-leaved vetch,cow vetch, fodder vetch or bramble vetch, is a herbaceous perennial plant species in the family Fabaceae. This species is widespread in Europe and some parts of both Asia and Africa. In some other areas it occurs as an introduced species. In a few countries this edible vetch is used as food for both humans and farm animals.

<i>Vicia bithynica</i> Species of flowering plant

Vicia bithynica known as Bithynian vetch, is a species of flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae. It was described by Carl Linnaeus, initially as Lathyrus bithynicus but later moved to the genus Vicia (vetches). The specific name is derived from Bithynia, an ancient kingdom situated on the north coast of Anatolia, in modern day Turkey.

References