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 now naturalised throughout the world, being absent only in Antarctica and the Arctic regions. The centre of diversity is thought to be the Fertile Crescent, although gold standard molecular confirmation is currently not available.
Global common vetch cultivation is limited due to anti-nutritional compounds in the seed although it is grown in dryland agricultural zones in Australia, China and Ethiopia due to its drought tolerance and very low nutrient requirements compared to other legumes. In these agricultural zones common vetch is grown as a green manure, livestock fodder or rotation crop. In cultivated grainfields, like lentils, it is often considered a weed due to downgrading of harvested mixed grain, resulting in farmers receiving less financial returns.
Description
Vicia sativa is a sprawling annual herb, with hollow, four-sided, hairless to sparsely hairy stems which can reach two meters in maximum length.
The leaves are stipulate, alternate and compound, each made up of 3–8 opposite pairs of linear, lance-shaped, oblong, or wedge-shaped, needle-tipped leaflets up to
The pea-like flowers occur in the leaf axils, solitary or in pairs. The flower corolla is 1–3 centimeters (1⁄2–1+1⁄4 in) long and bright pink-purple in colour, more rarely whitish or yellow. The flowers are mostly visited by bumblebees.
The fruit is a legume pod up to 6 or 7 centimeters (2+1⁄4 or 2+3⁄4 in) long, which is hairy when new, smooth later, then brown or black when ripe. It contains 4–12 seeds.
Common flower.
Rarer white flower
Immature fruit
Cultivation
Cooked vetch (Vicia sativa)
Sown for fodder, the seed is sown densely, up to 250 kilograms per hectare (220 lb/acre). However, when grown for seed, less seed is used so that the crop is not too thick,...
