Herbs annual or biennial. Stems erect, sprawling, or climbing, slender, 2–13 dm. Leaves 4–9 cm; tendrils branched; stipules much smaller than leaflets, semisagittate, without nectari­ferous patch; leaflets 10–18, blades narrowly oblong to linear, 10–35 × 1–10 mm, apex obtuse to acute or apiculate, surfaces glabrate to villous. Inflorescences 10–20+-flowered, 3–19 cm, longer than subtending leaf rachis. Flowers 12–18 mm; calyx base gibbous, lobes unequal, usually longer than tube; corolla violet to rose and white, banner pandurate, blade 1/2 length of claw, glabrous; style compressed adaxially, pubescent apically. Legumes tawny, oblong, 15–40 × 6–11 mm, oblique-tipped, glabrous; stipe to 2–3 mm. Seeds 2–8, black to blackish brown, globose to ovoid-oblong, 3–5 mm diam.; hilum encircling 1/7 circumference of seed.

Distribution

Introduced; Europe, c, sw Asia, n Africa, introduced also in South America, Australia.

Discussion

Varieties 5 (2 in the flora).

Vicia villosa was introduced as a forage crop and has become widely established in North America. It can be distinguished from the similar V. cracca by its distinctly asymmetric (gibbous) calyx base and banner blade half the length of the claw.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Vicia villosa var. glabrescens, Vicia villosa var. villosa

Key

1	Herbs villous, hairs conspicuous, 1–2 mm; inflo­rescences 20+-flowered, flowers crowded on rachis; adaxial calyx lobe acicular, 2–4 mm.	Vicia villosa var. villosa
1	Herbs glabrate, hairs inconspicuous, subap­pressed to spreading, 1 mm; inflorescences 10–20-flowered, flowers loosely arranged on rachis; adaxial calyx lobe lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 1–2(–2.4) mm.	Vicia villosa var. glabrescens