Green climbing plant with red flowers growing on a fence

The Common Vetch, Vicia sativa

Contact: info@nordgen.org

 

The common vetch has been cultivated at least since Roman times, but there are indications that it has been utilized by humans long before that. It is used as fodder for cows and horses etc. and also as a cover crop and as green manure. As other species in the pea family, it can fix nitrogen via a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria and thus add nitrogen to the soil. 

closeup of green leaves with antsIn this way it can facilitate not only its own growth, but also the growth of the plants around it by providing a nutrient central for plantsThis has been important in the past when availability of nutrients (via manure) was limited. The species can also play a role in modern agriculture and decrease the dependency on chemical fertilizers. In Sweden the vetch was an important forage crop in the 19th and early 20th century but the cultivation has decreased substantially since then. 

The common vetch is an annual herb with fairly large (1-2.5 cm), beautiful purple – red flowers, produced from June to August. It generate “pea-pods” with seeds that are dispersed by animals and humans. The seeds are adapted to survive the digestive tract and can in this way disperse a long way. It is not completely clear where the common vetch originated, but it is thought to stem from southern Europe or south-west Asia. 

Two rows of climbing plants growing inside a greenhouse
The Danish vetch cultivar ‘Hubalo’ is conserved at the gene bank at NordGen. The picture shows cultivation for seed production in Alnarp 2016. Photographer Anna Palmé

 There is a lot of variation in the common vetch and its close relatives, leading to some uncertainty regarding the definition of species and subspecies. Some of this variation is likely to have originated from domestication followed by establishment of new wild populations from cultivated plants. Today, there are generally three subspecies recognized in the Nordic area: ssp. sativa, ssp. nigra and ssp. segetalisVicia sativa ssp sativa is not native to the Nordic area but was introduced via agriculture and generally occur in temporary populations in disturbed land, such as fields and roadsides. The other subspecies occurs permanently in the southern parts of the Nordic region and ssp nigra can not only be found in disturbed habitats but also in forest edges and on dry meadows. 

 

 

 

References 

Virtuella floran

NatureGateLuonoportti

Çceliktaş N, Can EHatipoğlu R and Avci S (2006) Comparison between a wild population and cultivar of common vetch (Vicia sativa L., Fabaceae) on cytological and agronomic characteristicsNew Zealand Journal of Agricultural ResearchVol. 49: 389-393   

Heuzé V., Tran G., Baumont R., 2015. Common vetch (Vicia sativa). Feedipedia, a programme by INRA, CIRAD, AFZ and FAO. https://www.feedipedia.org/node/239 Last updated on May 11, 2015, 14:31