Vicia grandiflora Scop.

Large Yellow Vetch; Bigflower Vetch

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Large Yellow Vetch is an introduced cool season annual in the Bean family (Fabaceae). It is native to the southeastern portion of Europe, and in Asia from Turkey through the Caucasus. In Alabama, it can be found statewide on roadsides, in vacant lots, in fallow fields, and in pastures. Large Yellow Vetch is an annual germinating in late winter and flowering in the early spring. Stems are ascending or sprawling and branched from near the base. The stems are glabrous or short pubescent, green in color, and up to 2 feet in length. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, pinnately compound, with a terminal branched tendril. The leaflets are 6-14 in number, obovate to lanceolate in outline (wider towards the base of the plant and narrower towards the apex), and short pubescent. The leaflets are squared off at the apex with a single tooth. Flowers are subsessile in the axils of the leaves. The flowers are papilionaceous and vary in color from yellow, through white, to faintly pinkish. Newly opened flowers tend to be more yellow in color and become paler as they age. The fruit is a legume with 6-8 seed. Large Yellow Vetch was introduced into the United States as a forage and as a soil enricher.--A. Diamond

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Not Native

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