THE BULGARIAN FLORA ONLINE

Vicia bithynica

Bithynian Vetch

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Common name

Bithynian Vetch.

Scientific name

Vicia bithynica (L.) L.

Conservation status and threats

NOT protected species in Bulgaria¹.

Description and identification

Vicia bithynica is a annual herbaceous plant.

Stem (5) 20–60 cm tall, ascending to erect, usually branched from the base, quadrangular, up to 3–4 mm thick, predominantly long-hairy along the edges or glabrous.

Leaves pinnate, with a long, branched tendril at the apex. Leaflets in 1–3 pairs, on short, 0.5 mm long hairy petiolules, elliptic-lanceolate, oblong-elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, apex blunt, shortly pointed, green, entire, glabrous above, long-hairy beneath and along the margins, 20–50 mm long and 2–20 mm wide.

Stipules (7) 10–15 (20) mm long, uniform, without a spot, deeply toothed to lobed, long and sparsely hairy or glabrous.

Flowers solitary or in clusters of 2–3 in racemose inflorescences, attached in leaf axils, distributed along the stem, shorter than the subtending leaf.

Pedicels up to 3.0 mm long, long-hairy.

Calyx: up to 10 mm long, tubular-bell-shaped, long-hairy, regular; teeth elongated-triangular, more or less equal, longer than or equal to the tube.

Corolla 16–20 mm long.

Standard up to 10 mm wide, obovate, deeply notched at the apex, more or less abruptly narrowed into a broad claw in the lower third, curved upward in color, longer than the wings, purple with blue veins, glabrous.

Wings elliptic, with a broad elliptic appendage at the base, narrowed into thin long claws, longer than the keel, white, glabrous.

Keel ovate, with long claws at the base, white, glabrous.

Pod 2.5–4 cm long and 7–10 mm wide, linear, apically pointed and curved, more or less constricted between seeds, yellow or dark brown, sparsely hairy on the surface, densely hairy along the margins, containing 4–6 seeds.

Seeds 4–4.5 (5) mm in diameter, globose, purple, dark brown, or black, often brown-spotted, smooth; hilum 1/6–1/7 of the seed circumference.

Flowering May-June².

Habitat and Ecology

Shrubs and grassy places, in the plains and foothills³.

Distribution in Bulgaria

The Black Sea coast, West Frontier Mountains, The Struma Valley, The Middle Rhodopes, Thracian Plane⁴ and The Strandzha⁵; from 0 up to 500 m altitude⁶.

General distribution

Western and Southern Europe, Southwest Asia, Mediterranean⁷.

Map of general distribution⁸:

References

1 Bulgarian Biodiversity Act in english.

2 Кузманов, Б. 1976. Във: Флора на Народна Република България. Том VI. София.

3 Кузманов, Б. 1976. Във: Флора на Народна Република България. Том VI. София.

4 Кузманов, Б. 1976. Във: Флора на Народна Република България. Том VI. София.

5 K. Metodiev.

6 Кузманов, Б. 1976. Във: Флора на Народна Република България. Том VI. София.

7 Кузманов, Б. 1976. Във: Флора на Народна Република България. Том VI. София.

8 Vicia bithynica (L.) L. | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science.

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