Lathyrus nissolia

Grass pea ( Lathyrus nissolia )

The grass pea ( Lathyrus nissolia ) is a Fabaceae ( Faboideae ) of the genus Lathyrus. It blooms from May to July.

Description

Habitus and sheets

The annual herbaceous plant is usually quite bare and fresh green. The stem is simple and erect or branching from the base; he is 20 to 40 cm high, thin, and weak square.

The leaves are limited to the spreitenartig widened primary leaves and the semi- arrow-shaped to lanceolate, very small or even non-existent stipules. Never Wear leaflets or tendrils. The primary leaves are linear, more or less 4 to 13 cm long and 2-8 mm wide, usually pointed and 5 show strong and several fine longitudinal nerves. The stipules are very small or absent.

Flowers and Fruit

The inflorescences are about 2/3 times as long as the primary leaves, flowered (rarely two flowered ) and have a thin, did not extend over the very small or very stunted Tragblatt axis. The zygomorphe flower is more or less 8-9 mm long and is available on a short stalk or nods at this. The calyx is tubular and bell-shaped, glabrous or short haired and has lanceolate teeth. The crown is purple to purple - violet and often remains closed completely. The flag is dark veined, much longer than the wings and the whitish boat.

The legumes are projecting or nodding, ruler, approximately 4 to 5 cm long and 3-4 mm wide. They show weak vortretende, narrow mesh network forming nervous and are beginning mostly hairy silky - downy, later, however, more or less glabrous, light to olivbrauner color and eight - to 15 - SAMIg.

The seeds are spherical spotted to somewhat angular, warty - rough, brown and dark. The small flowers are often not open at all, but yet bring forth ripe fruit. So you are autogamous to kleistogam. The seeds retain their ability to germinate very long and can therefore long time resting in the forest floor until they find an opportunity to germinate after being cut down.

The species has the chromosome number 2n = 14

Distribution and habitat requirements hazard

The grass pea comes in the Mediterranean region, North Africa, Hungary, Ukraine, the Caucasus, western Asia, north to France, southern England, the Netherlands and Germany before. Lathyrus nissolia is a sub-Mediterranean - Mediterranean Florenelement, which originally was probably a wood residents and only in Southern Europe to Hungary is indigenous. In other areas it is locally naturalized or a temporary occurring weed that thrives on relatively dry lime-poor grain fields, Ackerrainen, bushes, on forest meadows, pastures. Phytosociological it is in Central Europe usually Secalietea a - kind, but also comes in forest fringes eg the Carpinion Association ago.

In Germany it is generally very scattered and rare and often inconsistent, especially in the central and southern part of Germany before. In Bavaria it is rare and scattered mainly in the northern part, south of the Danube virtually absent.

Threat in Germany: Category 2: endangered.