Vicia

Taxonomy

Vicia C. Linnaeus Sp. Pl. 734. 1 Mai 1753.

Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.19.01.
Tribe: Fabeae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 85 studied; 166 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legumelegume:
usually dry, dehiscent fruit derived from a single carpel that opens along two longitudinal sutures
; unilocular; 0.6–2.5 cm long; 0.2–3 cm wide; 0.2–3 cm thick; 2–9 times longer than wide; with deciduous androecial sheath, or persistent androecial sheath; with deciduous corolla; with persistent calyx, or deciduous calyx; with calyx shorter than fruit; without orifice formed by curving of fruit or fruit segments; straight to curved (to slightly curved); not plicate; not twisted; asymmetrical; linear, or falcate, or rhombic; with both sutures nearly straight; inflated (V. faba), or not inflated; compressed, or terete, or flattened; without beak, or with beak; straight; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; short tapered at apex to tapered at apex to rounded at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit, or oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit (slightly); short tapered at base to tapered at base to long tapered at base to rounded at base; oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit, or aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; coriaceous, or leathery; seed chambers externally invisible, or visible; seed chambers with the raised seed chambers not torulose, or torulose; margin not constricted, or constricted; margin slightly constricted along both margins to constricted along both margins, or slightly constricted only on 1 margin; margin without sulcus; margin plain; wing(s) absent; nonstipitate, or substipitate; with all layers dehiscing; splitting along suture(s). Dehiscence of valves along both sutures; apical and down; active; with valves twisting (tightly or loosely). Replum invisible. Epicarp dull; monochrome; brown (various shades and in combination with other colors), or tan, or black; with surface texture uniform; glabrous, or pubescent and indurate to pubescent but soon deciduous; with hairs erect; with 1 type of pubescence; puberulent, or pilose; with pubescence gray, or golden; with simple hairs, or glandular hairs; pliable; with hair bases swollen, or plain; glandular; with glandular hairs; without spines; not smooth; with elevated features, or recessed features; veined; reticulately veined; not tuberculate, or tuberculate; with solid tubercles on each valve (widely scattered); pusticulate (indurate bases of hairs), or tuberculate (scattered and rarely); occasionally punctate; not exfoliating; without cracks; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp present; thin; surface not veined; 1-layered; without balsamic vesicles; without fibers; without reniform canals; solid; coriaceous. Endocarp present; visible; dull; opaque; monochrome; tan; smooth; without adhering pieces of testa; nonseptate (New World spp.), or septate (some Old World spp.); with septa thin (tissue paper-like), flexible, or thicker than paper, firm; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; without wings; entire. Seed(s) 1–16; length parallel with fruit length (without regard to hilum position in V. faba); neither overlapping nor touching, or touching; in 1 series. Funiculus 0.5–2 mm long; of 1 length only; thick, or flattened; straight, or S-curved. Aril absent, or present (not a true aril, but an expanded funiculus); fleshy; when fleshy expanded funiculus; entire; covering less than 1/2 of seed; tan, or white.

Seed: 1.5–30.5 mm long (without regard to hilum position in V. faba); 1.4–17 mm wide; 1.3–9 mm thick; not overgrown; not angular, or angular; asymmetrical, or symmetrical; circular, or oblong, or ovate, or quadrangular, or triangular; terete, or compressed; without visible radicle and cotyledon lobes; with umbo on seed faces; without medial ridge on each face. Cuticle not exfoliating; not inflated; not wrinkled. Testa present; without pieces of adhering epicarp; not adhering to endocarp; free from endocarp; dull, or glossy, or velvet; not modified by a bloom, or modified by a bloom; colored; monochrome, or mottled and streaked; with frequent mottles; with frequent streaks; brown (including most shades and combinations with other colors), or tan (reddish, greenish), or black (purplish); with black overlay, or brown overlay (including most shades and combinations with other colors), or red overlay; glabrous; smooth, or not smooth; with elevated features; tuberculate; osseous, or coriaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe not visible. Hilum present; visible, or partially concealed, or fully concealed; concealed by funiculus, or funicular remnant, or aril; with faboid split; with the lips of the faboid split lighter colored than the rest of the hilum and therefore conspicuous, or the same color as the rest of the hilum; larger than punctiform, or punctiform; 0.3–12 mm long; with curved outline, or angular outline, or straight outline; circular; wedge-shaped; linear, or oblong; marginal according to radicle tip; flush; not within corona, halo, or rim, or within halo; halo lighter than testa. Lens discernible, or not discernible; 0.7–4 mm long; with margins straight, or curved; irregular, or linear; circular, or irregular; not in groove of raphe; adjacent to hilum, or confluent with hilum, or 180 degrees from hilum, or 270 degrees from hilum; 0.1–13 mm from hilum (longest distances in V. faba); mounded; dissimilar color from testa, or similar color as testa, or same color as testa; darker than testa; black, or brown, or tan; not within corona, halo, or rim. Endosperm present; thin; not pluglike and not resembling tip of radicle; covering entire embryo; adnate to testa (enclosing radicle in sheath). Cotyledons smooth; both outer faces convex; both the same thickness; both more or less of equal length; not folded; margin entire 180 degrees from base of radicle; similar at apex; not concealing radicle; split over radicle; with lobes; with lobes not touching; with the interface division terminating at base of radicle; without margins recessed; white, or yellow; inner face flat; glabrous on inner face. Embryonic axis deflexed; oblique to length of seed; without a joint evident between the radicle and the cotyledons. Radicle differentiated from cotyledon; triangular; deflexed and parallel to cotyledon length, or deflexed and parallel to cotyledon width; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons. Plumule well developed; glabrous.

Distribution

North and South America, Europe, Canary Islands, North and East Africa, Asia, and Hawaii.

New World to Old World; Alaska to Canada to United States to Mexico to Central America to South America; Argentina, Peru, Brazil, and the Guianas; Europe to Mediterranean to Africa to Russia to Southwest Asia to India to China to Korea to Japan to Mongolia to Hawaii to Macaronesia (Africa (north, east, Canary Islands)).

Worldwide crop.

Generic Notes

Kupicha (1976) treated, for the first time, Vicia on a worldwide basis. She recognized two subgenera and twenty-two sections, and some fruit and seed characters have value as sectional characters. Maxted (1993, 1995) revised Vicia subgen. Vicia, and proposed nine sections and nine series. He distinguished Vicia sect. Hypechusa (F.G.C. Alefeld) P.F.A. Acherson & K.O.R.P.P. Graebner using seed characteristics, and revised the section with Colin Douglas (1997), recognizing two series, 14 species, and six subspecies in the section. Potokina (1997) revised the V. sativa aggregate for the former USSR. Like Lens (19.03) and Pisum (19.04), a few species of Vicia, such as V. faba and V. ervilia (C. Linnaeus) C.L. von Willdenow, appeared "in the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures in the Near East and Europe" (Zohary and Hopf, 1973). Hermann (1960) treated the genus in the United States, Gunn (1979) treated the genus in Mexico and Central America, Lassetter and Gunn (1979) monographed V. menziesii C.P.J. Sprengel, a native species of the island of Hawaii, and Bastos and Miotto (1996) revised the native Brazilian species of Vicia. Gunn (1970a, 1970b, 1971) and Zertová (1962) studied the seed morphology of Vicia, and Gunn (1968) provided a key and diagrams for the seeds of 100 species of Vicia. Vicia sativa subsp. amphicarpa (C. Linnaeus) J.A. Battandier produces both aerial and subterranean fruits.

Tribal Notes

Tribe Fabeae

This tribe has traditionally been called Vicieae. Article 19.4 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (Greuter et al., 1994) stated, "The name of any subdivision of a family that includes the type of the adopted, legitimate name of the family to which it is assigned is to be based on the generic name equivalent to the type." Faba P. Miller is the type of Fabaceae, and is synonymous with Vicia. Therefore because Faba is included in this tribe, the tribe must be called Fabeae. Endo and Ohashi (1997) have proposed, after a cladistic analysis using morphological characters, including internal seed morphology, that Cicereae (20) and Fabeae (Vicieae) formed a monophyetic group whose sister group is Trifolieae (21). Butler (2002) examined the exterior micromorpholgical characters of Fabeae fruits. She concluded that the genera are so variable that they can not be identified using these characters and that wild forms also can not be separated domesticated forms using exterior micromorpholgical characters. Therefore, domestication has not affected the exterior micromorpholgical characters of Fabeae fruits.