Vicia lathyroides

Grass pea - vetch (Vicia lathyroides )

The grass pea - vetch (Vicia lathyroides ), also Spring dwarf pea, called sand vetch or chickpea vetch, is one in Central Europe in places common, species of the genus vetches (Vicia ) in the subfamily of the Fabaceae ( Faboideae ) within the the legume family ( Fabaceae ).

Features

The grass pea - vetch is an annual or more frequent wintering - annual herbaceous plant, with weak root and several prostrate or ascending stems. The short and soft (almost silky ) hairy or bald stalk is thin, more or less 5 to 15 cm long and branched only at the base.

The pinnate leaves are about 1-3 cm long and with a short, usually occupied by only one awn, rarely expiring with a simple tendril spindle. The leaves bear one or two pairs of bald or short hairy leaflets. The lower ones are obovate to almost the - heart-shaped, about 2-6 mm long and about half as wide, the upper ones are up to 14 mm long, elliptic to linear, truncate to pointed, and have an acute angle outgoing lateral nerves.

The stipules are small, semi- arrow-shaped, entire and without nectaries.

The flowers usually sit singly in the leaf axils. The almost sessile flowers are zygomorphic and about 5 to 8 mm long. The calyx is funnel-shaped, bell-shaped and more or less hairy. The teeth are lanceolate and about as long as the tube. The crown is usually light purple, rarely white. The flag is upside - heart-shaped, folded and hardly longer than the more bluish wings. These are about twice as long as the blunt, greenish, dark purple at the top boat. All stamens are fused.

It flowers in April and June, often again in August. Vicia lathyroides is close to the grass pea, because all stamens are fused. Honey holes are missing and also nectar seems to be not secreted. The style is remarkably short, but carries forward but a well-developed brush pen. Pollination device is thus opposite that of most other vetches greatly reduced and that as a result of autogamy.

The legumes are linear, more or less spreading, 2 to 2.5 cm long and 4 mm wide, beaked, slightly puffy, smooth, mostly bare and brown to black in color. They usually carry more or less 7 seeds.

The seeds are rounded prismatic, about 1.5 to 2 mm long, distinctly warty and reddish brown to black in color. The grass pea - vetch is the only European vetch with warty seeds.

Distribution and habitat requirements

The grass pea - vetch is scattered in almost all of Europe to southern Scandinavia, Caucasus, Crimea, Asia Minor and North Africa. In the Iberian Peninsula and in the higher parts of Central Europe it is missing in large areas. Vicia lathyroides is a sub-Mediterranean - subatlantisches Florenelement.

The grass pea - vetch grows more common only in northern and eastern Germany, in Bavaria rarely in the main and Regnitz area. The grass pea - vetch grows in short Magerrasen and Gentiles, on pastures, sandy fallow fields and along roadsides. It grows mainly on soils deficient in lime and almost exclusively in the lowland and in the colline level.