''Vicia'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of over 240
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
s that are part of the
legume family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
(
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
The Faboideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. An acceptable alternative name for the subfamily is Papilionoideae, or Papilionaceae when this group of plants is treated as a family.
This subfamily is widely ...
also have names containing "vetch", for example the vetchlings (''
Lathyrus
''Lathyrus'' is a genus of flowering plants
in the legume family Fabaceae, and contains approximately 160 species. Commonly known as peavines or vetchlings, they are native to temperate areas, with a breakdown of 52 species in Europe, 30 spec ...
'') or the milk-vetches (''
Astragalus
''Astragalus'' is a large genus of over 3,000 species of herbs and small shrubs, belonging to the legume family Fabaceae and the subfamily Faboideae. It is the largest genus of plants in terms of described species. The genus is native to tempe ...
''). The broad bean (''
Vicia faba
''Vicia faba'', commonly known as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean, is a species of vetch, a flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated as a crop for human consumption, and also as a cover crop. Varieti ...
'') is sometimes separated in a
monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...
genus ''Faba''; although not often used today, it is of historical importance in
plant taxonomy
Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, identifies, describes, classifies, and names plants. It is one of the main branches of taxonomy (the science that finds, describes, classifies, and names living things).
Plant taxonomy is closely allied ...
as the namesake of the
order Fabales
The Fabales are an order of flowering plants included in the rosid group of the eudicots in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II classification system. In the APG II circumscription, this order includes the families Fabaceae or legumes (including ...
, the Fabaceae and the Faboideae. The
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...
Vicieae
The tribe Fabeae (sometimes referred to as "Vicieae") is one of the subdivisions of the plant family Fabaceae. It is included within the Inverted repeat-lacking clade (IRLC). Five genera are included:
* ''Lathyrus'' L. (vetchlings)
* ''Lens'' Mi ...
in which the vetches are placed is named after the genus' current name. Among the closest living relatives of vetches are the lentils (''
Lens
A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements ...
'') and the true peas (''
Pisum
''Pisum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, native to southwest Asia and northeast Africa. It contains one to five species, depending on taxonomic interpretation; the International Legume Database (ILDIS) accepts three speci ...
'').
Use by humans
Bitter vetch (''
V. ervilia'') was one of the
first domesticated crops. It was grown in the
Near East about 9,500 years ago, starting perhaps even one or two millennia earlier during the
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A. By the time of the
Central Europe
Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...
an
Linear Pottery culture – about 7,000 years ago – broad bean (''
V. faba'') had also been domesticated. Vetch has been found at Neolithic and Eneolithic sites in Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia. And at the same time, at the opposite end of
Eurasia
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...
, the
Hoabinhian
Hoabinhian is a lithic techno-complex of archaeological sites associated with assemblages in Southeast Asia from late Pleistocene to Holocene, dated to c.10,000–2000 BCE. It is attributed to hunter-gatherer societies of the region and their ...
people also utilized the broad bean in their path towards
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...
, as shown by the seeds found in
Spirit Cave, Thailand.
Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, O. Cist. ( la, Bernardus Claraevallensis; 109020 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was an abbot, mystic, co-founder of the Knights Templars, and a major leader in the reformation of the Benedictine Order throug ...
shared a bread-of-vetch meal with his monks during the famine of 1124 to 1126, as an emblem of humility. However, Bitter Vetch largely was dropped from human use over time. It was only used to save as a crop of last resort in times of starvation: vetches "featured in the frugal diet of the poor until the eighteenth century, and even reappeared on the black market in the South of France during the Second World War", Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, of Marseillais background, has remarked. However, broad beans remained prominent. In the Near East the seeds are mentioned in
Hittite and
Ancient Egyptian sources dating from more than 3,000 years ago as well as in the
Christian Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
, and in the large
Celtic Oppidum of Manching
The Oppidum of Manching (german: Oppidum von Manching) was a large Celtic proto-urban or city-like settlement at modern-day Manching, near Ingolstadt, in Bavaria, Germany. The Iron Age town (or oppidum) was founded in the 3rd century BC and exis ...
from the
La Tène culture
The La Tène culture (; ) was a European Iron Age culture. It developed and flourished during the late Iron Age (from about 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC), succeeding the early Iron Age Hallstatt culture without any defi ...
in Europe some 2,200 years ago. Dishes resembling
ful medames
Ful medames ( ar, فول مدمس, ' ; other spellings include ''ful mudammas'' and '' foule mudammes''), or simply fūl, is a stew of cooked fava beans served with olive oil, cumin, and optionally with chopped parsley, garlic, onion, lemon juice, ...
are attested in the
Jerusalem Talmud
The Jerusalem Talmud ( he, תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, translit=Talmud Yerushalmi, often for short), also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century ...
which was compiled before 400 AD.
![Vicia pannonica2 W](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Vicia_pannonica2_W.jpg)
In our time, the common vetch (''
V. sativa'') has also risen to prominence. Together with broad bean
cultivar
A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...
s such as horse bean or field bean, the
FAO
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...
includes it among the 11 most important
pulses
In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...
in the world. The main usage of the common vetch is as
forage
Forage is a plant material (mainly plant leaves and stems) 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 ...
for
ruminant
Ruminants (suborder Ruminantia) are hoofed herbivorous grazing or browsing mammals that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through microbial actions. The ...
animals, both as
fodder and
legume, but there are other uses, as tufted vetch, ''
V. cracca'' is grown as a mid-summer
pollen source for
honeybee
A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosm ...
s.
In 2017, global production of vetches was 920,537
tonnes
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton (United States c ...
. That year, 560,077 acreas were devoted to the cultivation of vetches in the world. Over 54% of that output came from Europe alone. Africa (17.8% of world total), Asia (15.6% of world total), Americas (10.6% of world total) and Oceania (1.8% of world total).
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The bitter vetch, too, is grown extensively for forage and fodder, as are hairy vetch (''Vicia villosa">V. villosa'', also called fodder vetch), bard vetch (''Vicia articulata">V. articulata''), French vetch (''Vicia serratifolia">V. serratifolia'') and Narbon bean (''Vicia narbonensis">V. narbonensis''). ''Vicia benghalensis">V. benghalensis'' and Hungarian vetch (''Vicia pannonica">V. pannonica'') are cultivated for forage and green manure.
The vetches also have a broad variety of other purposes. The Hairy Vetch has well-established uses as a green manure and as an allelopathic cover crop. As regards the broad bean, it is known to accumulate aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
in its tissue; in polluted soils it may be useful in phytoremediation
Phytoremediation technologies use living plants to clean up soil, air and water contaminated with hazardous contaminants. It is defined as "the use of green plants and the associated microorganisms, along with proper soil amendments and agronom ...
, but with one per mil of aluminum in the dry plant (possibly more in the seeds), it might not be edible anymore. The robust plants are useful as a beetle bank
A beetle bank, in agriculture and horticulture, is a form of biological pest control. It is a strip, preferably raised, planted with grasses (bunch grasses) and/or perennial plants, within a crop field or a garden, that fosters and provides habita ...
to provide habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
and shelter for carnivorous beetle
Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...
s and other arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...
s to keep down pest invertebrates. When the root nodules of broad bean are inoculated with the rhodospirillacean bacterium '' Azospirillum brasilense'' and the glomeracean fungus '' Glomus clarum'', the species can also be productively grown in salty soils. In the 1980s, the auxin 4-Cl-IAA was studied in '' V. amurensis'' and the broad bean, and since 1990, the antibacterial
An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and prevention ...
γ-thionins fabatin-1 and -2 have been isolated from the latter species.
Despite a small chromosome count of ''n''=6, the broad bean has a high DNA content, making it easy for a micronucleus test of its root tips to recognize genotoxic Genotoxicity is the property of chemical agents that damage the genetic information within a cell causing mutations, which may lead to cancer. While genotoxicity is often confused with mutagenicity, all mutagens are genotoxic, but some genotoxic s ...
compounds. A lectin from '' V. graminea'' is used to test for the medically significant N blood group.
Toxicity
The vetches grown as forage are generally toxic to non-ruminants (such as humans), at least if eaten in quantity. Cattle and horses have been poisoned by ''V. villosa'' and ''V. benghalensis'', two species that contain canavanine in their seeds. Canavanine, a toxic analogue of the amino acid arginine, has been identified in Hairy Vetch as an appetite suppressant
An anorectic or anorexic is a drug which reduces appetite, resulting in lower food consumption, leading to weight loss. By contrast, an appetite stimulant is referred to as orexigenic.
The term is (from the Greek ''ἀν-'' (an-) = "without" ...
for monogastric animals, while Narbon bean contains the quicker-acting but weaker γ-glutamyl-S- ethenylcysteine. In common vetch, γ-glutamyl-β-cyanoalanine has been found. The active part of this molecule is β-cyanoalanine. It inhibits the conversion of the sulfur amino acid methionine to cysteine.
Cystathionine, an intermediary product of this biochemical pathway, is secreted in urine. This process can effectively lead to the depletion of vital protective reserves of the sulfur amino acid cysteine and thereby making ''Vicia sativa'' seed a dangerous component in mixture with other toxin sources. The Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
pulse mix ' contains common vetch and bitter vetch in addition to vetchling (''Lathyrus cicera
''Lathyrus cicera'' is a species of wild pea known by the common names red pea, red vetchling and flatpod peavine. It is native to Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, and it is known from other places as an introduced species. This is a h ...
'') seeds; it can be fed in small quantities to ruminants, but its use as a staple food will cause lathyrism even in these animals. Moreover, common vetch as well as broad bean – and probably other species of ''Vicia'' too – contain oxidant
An oxidizing agent (also known as an oxidant, oxidizer, electron recipient, or electron acceptor) is a substance in a redox chemical reaction that gains or " accepts"/"receives" an electron from a (called the , , or ). In other words, an oxi ...
s like convicine, isouramil, divicine
Divicine (2,6-diamino-4,5-dihydroxypyrimidine) is an oxidant and a base with alkaloidal properties found in fava beans and ''Lathyrus sativus''. It is an aglycone of vicine. A common derivative is the diacetate form (2,6-diamino-1,6-dihydro-4,5- ...
and vicine
Vicine is an alkaloid glycoside found mainly in fava beans, which are also called broad beans (''Vicia faba)''. Vicine is toxic in individuals who have a hereditary loss of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. It causes haemolytic anaemi ...
in quantities sufficient to lower glutathione
Glutathione (GSH, ) is an antioxidant in plants, animals, fungi, and some bacteria and archaea. Glutathione is capable of preventing damage to important cellular components caused by sources such as reactive oxygen species, free radicals, pe ...
levels in G6PD
Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD or G6PDH) () is a cytosolic enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction
: D-glucose 6-phosphate + NADP+ + H2O 6-phospho-D-glucono-1,5-lactone + NADPH + H+
This enzyme participates in the pentose phosp ...
-deficient persons to cause favism
Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PDD), which is the most common enzyme deficiency worldwide, is an inborn error of metabolism that predisposes to red blood cell breakdown. Most of the time, those who are affected have no symptoms. ...
disease. At least broad beans also contain the lectin phytohemagglutinin
Phytohaemagglutinin (PHA, or phytohemagglutinin) is a lectin found in plants, especially certain legumes. PHA actually consists of two closely related proteins, called leucoagglutinin (PHA-L) and PHA-E. These proteins cause blood cells to clump ...
and are somewhat poisonous if eaten raw. Split common vetch seeds resemble split red lentil
The lentil (''Lens culinaris'' or ''Lens esculenta'') is an edible legume. It is an annual plant known for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about tall, and the seeds grow in pods, usually with two seeds in each. As a food crop, the largest produ ...
s (''Lens culinaris''), and has been occasionally mislabelled as such by exporters or importers to be sold for human consumption. In some countries where lentils are highly popular – e.g., Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
, Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
, India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
and Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
– import bans on suspect produce have been established to prevent these potentially harmful scams.
Ecology
Vetches have cylindrical root nodules of the indeterminate type and are thus nitrogen-fixing
Nitrogen fixation is a chemical process by which molecular nitrogen (), with a strong triple covalent bond, in the air is converted into ammonia () or related nitrogenous compounds, typically in soil or aquatic systems but also in industry. Atm ...
plants. Their flowers usually have white to purple
Purple is any of a variety of colors with hue between red and blue. In the RGB color model used in computer and television screens, purples are produced by mixing red and blue light. In the RYB color model historically used by painters, ...
or blue hues, but may be red or yellow; they are pollinated
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, a ...
by bumblebee
A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera ...
s, honey bee
A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosm ...
s, solitary bees and other insect
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...
s.
''Vicia'' species are used as food plants by the caterpillars of some butterflies and moth
Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...
s, such as:
*'' Coleophora cracella'' – only found on ''Vicia'' species
*'' Coleophora fuscicornis'' – only found on smooth tare ('' V. tetrasperma'')
*'' Paratalanta pandalis'' – recorded on bush vetch ('' V. sepium'')
*'' Chionodes lugubrella'' – recorded on tufted vetch ('' V. cracca'')
*Lime-speck pug
The lime-speck pug (''Eupithecia centaureata'') is a moth of the family Geometridae. It is a common species throughout the Palearctic region (where it is found in Europe, Central Asia, Mongolia, southern Siberia, eastern China (Guangdong) and Ta ...
(''Eupithecia centaureata'') – recorded on tufted vetch (''V. cracca'')
*Double-striped pug
The double-striped pug (''Gymnoscelis rufifasciata'') is a moth of the family Geometridae. It is a widespread and common species, being found throughout the Palearctic region, including the Near East and North Africa.
This is a variable specie ...
(''Gymnoscelis rufifasciata'') – recorded on broad bean ('' V. faba'')
* Provençal short-tailed blue (''Everes alcetas'')
* Amanda's blue (''Polyommatus amandus'') – only found on ''Vicia'' species
* The flame (''Axylia putris'')
*Blackneck ('' Lygephila pastinum'') – recorded on tufted vetch (''V. cracca'')
*Angle shades
The angle shades (''Phlogophora meticulosa'') is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. It is distributed throughout Europe as far east as the Urals and a ...
(''Phlogophora meticulosa'')
*''Colias
''Colias'' is a genus of butterflies in the family Pieridae. They are often called clouded yellows; the North American name "sulphurs" is elsewhere used for Coliadinae in general. The closest living relative is the genus '' Zerene'', which is so ...
'' species, e.g., Clouded sulphur (''C. philodice'')
* Wood white (''Leptidea sinapis'')
*Pea moth
''Cydia nigricana'', the pea moth, is a moth of the family Tortricidae. It is found in Europe.
Description
It is a small (15 mm wingspan), grey-brown moth whose larvae (caterpillars) feed in the pods of garden peas. They have a long antenn ...
(''Cydia nigricana'')
Most other parasite
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has ...
s and plant pathogens affecting vetches have been recorded on the broad bean, the most widely cultivated and economically significant species. They include the mite
Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear e ...
'' Balaustium vignae'' whose adults are found on broad bean, the potexvirus
''Potexvirus'' is a genus of pathogenic viruses in the order '' Tymovirales'', in the family ''Alphaflexiviridae''. Plants serve as natural hosts. There are 48 species in this genus, three of which are assigned to a subgenus. Diseases associated ...
es ''Alternanthera'' mosaic virus, clover yellow mosaic virus and white clover mosaic virus, and several other virus species such as ''Bidens'' mosaic virus, tobacco streak virus
Tobacco streak virus (TSV) is a plant pathogenic virus of the family '' Bromoviridae'', in the genus ''Ilarvirus''. It has a wide host range, with at least 200 susceptible species. TSV is generally more problematic in the tropics or warmer clim ...
, ''Vicia'' cryptic virus and ''Vicia faba'' endornavirus.
Selected species
*''Vicia americana
''Vicia americana'' is a species of legume in the vetch genus known by the common names American vetch and purple vetch. It includes a subspecies known as mat vetch.
Description
It is a climbing perennial forb that grows from both taproot and ...
'' – American vetch, purple vetch, mat vetch
*'' Vicia amoena''
*'' Vicia amurensis'' Oett. (=''V. japonica'' ''sensu auct non'' A.Gray)
*'' Vicia andicola'' Kunth
*'' Vicia articulata'' Hornem. – bard vetch
*'' Vicia bakeri'' Ali (=''V. sylvatica'' Benth.)
*'' Vicia basaltica'' Plitmann
*'' Vicia benghalensis'' L.
*'' Vicia biennis'' L.
*'' Vicia bithynica'' (L.) L. – Bithynian vetch
*'' Vicia bungei'' Ohwi
*'' Vicia canescens'' Labill.
*'' Vicia cappadocica'' Boiss. & Balansa
*'' Vicia caroliniana'' Walter – Carolina wood vetch
*'' Vicia cassubica'' L. – Kashubian vetch
''Vicia cassubica'', called Kashubian vetch and Danzig vetch, is a species of flowering plant in the genus ''Vicia
''Vicia'' is a genus of over 240 species of flowering plants that are part of the legume family (Fabaceae), and which are co ...
*''Vicia cracca
''Vicia cracca'' (tufted vetch, cow vetch, bird vetch, blue vetch, boreal vetch), 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, includ ...
'' – tufted vetch
*'' Vicia cuspidata'' Boiss.
*'' Vicia cusnae''
*'' Vicia cypria'' Unger & Kotschy
*'' Vicia disperma'' DC. (=''V. parviflora'' Loisel.)
*'' Vicia dumetorum'' L.
*''Vicia ervilia
''Vicia ervilia'', commonly known as ervil or bitter vetch, is an ancient grain legume crop of the Mediterranean region. Besides the English names, other common names include: (Persian), (Arabic), (Spanish), (Greek), and (Turkish). Accordi ...
'' – bitter vetch
*'' Vicia esdraelonensis'' Warb. & Eig
*''Vicia faba
''Vicia faba'', commonly known as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean, is a species of vetch, a flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated as a crop for human consumption, and also as a cover crop. Varieti ...
'' – fava bean, broad bean, faba bean, horse bean, field bean, bell bean, tic bean
*'' Vicia galeata'' Boiss.
*'' Vicia galilaea'' Plitmann & Zohary
*'' Vicia gigantea'' Bunge
*'' Vicia graminea'' Sm.
*'' Vicia grandiflora'' Scop. (=''V. kitaibeliana'')
*'' Vicia hassei'' S.Watson
*'' Vicia hirsuta'' – hairy tare
*'' Vicia hololasia'' Woronow
*'' Vicia hulensis'' Plitmann
*'' Vicia hybrida'' L.
*'' Vicia japonica'' A.Gray
*'' Vicia lathyroides'' – spring vetch
*'' Vicia lilacina'' Ledeb.
*''Vicia linearifolia
''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 othe ...
'' Hook. & Arn. (=''V. parviflora'' Hook. & Arn.)
*'' Vicia loiseleurii'' (M.Bieb.) Litv. (=''V. pubescens'' ''sensu auct. fl. Cauc.'')
*'' Vicia lutea'' – yellow vetch
*'' Vicia menziesii'' Spreng. – Hawaiian vetch
*'' Vicia minutiflora'' F.G. Dietr. – pygmyflower vetch
*'' Vicia monantha'' Retz. – single-flowered vetch
*'' Vicia nana'' Vogel
*'' Vicia narbonensis'' L. – Narbon bean, moor's pea (=''V. serratifolia'' ''sensu auct. non'' Jacq.)
*'' Vicia nigricans'' – black vetch
**''Vicia nigricans'' ssp. ''gigantea'' (=''V. gigantea'' Hook.) – giant vetch
*'' Vicia onobrychioides'' L.
*'' Vicia oroboides'' Wulfen
*''Vicia orobus
''Vicia orobus'' is a species of leguminous plant in the genus ''Vicia'', known as wood bitter-vetch. It is found in Atlantic areas of Europe, especially in the rocky edges of seasonally-grazed fields. It grows up to tall, and has no tendrils ...
'' DC. – upright vetch, wood bitter-vetch
*'' Vicia palaestina'' Boiss.
*'' Vicia pannonica'' – Hungarian vetch
*'' Vicia parviflora'' Cav. – slender vetch, slender tare (=''V. tenuissima'')
*'' Vicia peregrina'' L.
*'' Vicia pisiformis'' L. – pea-flowered vetch
*'' Vicia pseudo-orobus'' Fisch. & C. A. Mey.
*'' Vicia pubescens'' (DC.) Link
*'' Vicia pyrenaica''
*''Vicia sativa
''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 likely native to North Africa, Western Asia and Europe, but is now naturalized in temperate and ...
'' – common vetch, narrow-leaved vetch, tare
*'' Vicia sepium'' – bush vetch
*'' Vicia sericocarpa'' Fenzl
*'' Vicia serratifolia'' Jacq. – French vetch (formerly in ''V. narbonensis'')
*'' Vicia sylvatica'' L. – wood vetch
*'' Vicia tenuifolia'' Roth. – fine-leaved vetch
**''Vicia tenuifolia'' ssp. ''dalmatica'' (A.Kern.) Greuter (=''V. dalmatica'', ''V. tenuifolia'' ''sensu auct. non'' Roth.)
*'' Vicia tetrasperma'' – smooth tare, smooth vetch
*'' Vicia tsydenii'' Malyschev
*'' Vicia unijuga'' A.Br.
*'' Vicia villosa'' – hairy vetch, fodder vetch, winter vetch
Plants formerly placed in ''Vicia'' include:
*'' Lens nigricans'' (as ''V. nigricans'' (M.Bieb.) Janka)
Etymology
''Vicia'' means 'binder' in Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
; this was the name used by Pliny
Pliny may refer to:
People
* Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'')
* Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...
for vetch.[Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press. (hardback), (paperback). pp 401]
The vetch is also referenced by Horace in his account of 'The town mouse and country mouse' as '' ervum.''Satires II.6, 117
/ref> This is said to be a source of comfort for the country mouse after a disturbing insight into urban life.
Notes
References
*
External links and further reading
*
''Vicia'' plant profiles
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...
Mansfeld's database for cultivated plants
(search for ''Vicia'', 17 cultivated taxa listed)
*FAO's Neglected crops: 1492 from a different perspectiv
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q147337
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Pre-Pottery Neolithic A
Fabaceae genera
Forages