This site and its content are under development.

Vicia sativa subsp. nigra (L.)
Ehrh., Narrow-leaved Vetch

Account Summary

Doubtfully native, very rare. Widely introduced and naturalised in both hemispheres.

1892; Praeger, R.Ll.; stony shore, Inishmacsaint Island, Lower Lough Erne.

May to September.

Identification and taxonomic confusion

V. sativa subsp. nigra is recognised as being a straggly, climbing or procumbent, slender-stemmed annual or winter annual with concolorous (ie single coloured) bright purple, solitary or paired flowers only 10-20 mm long, with upper leaves having much narrower leaflets than the lower leaves (ie it is markedly heterophyllous) and the legume is 30-50 mm long, smooth and not contracted between the seeds (Hollings & Stace 1978; Aarssen et al. 1986; Sell & Murrrell 2009). This vetch is so different from other variants of V. sativa that until quite recently it was often regarded as a separate, though rather variable species, V. angustifolia L., the translated English common name of which still applies to this subspecies.

There has been much taxonomic confusion and change in nomenclature involving this particular taxon and it has several recently used synonyms including: var. nigra L.; subsp. angustifolia (L.) Gaudin; subsp. uncinata (Rouy) P.D. Sell; subsp. bobarti (E. Forst.) P.D. Sell; V. forsteri Jord.; and V. angustifolia L. ssp. angustifolia (Sell & Murrell 2009; Stace 2019).

Fermanagh occurrence

V. sativa subsp. nigra grows on dry, sandy or gravelly places and the Fermanagh database has a total of just six records for it in the VC. The first shown above was from a stony island shore and the others are: Enniskillen town, 1900, Praeger; sand pit, Pubble Bridge, Tempo River, 11 September 1994, RHN; Drumcullion Lough, S of Tamlaght, 4 June 1996, HJN & RHN; top of a wall, Old Crom Castle, 21 May 1999, RHN; and Rushin Point, Upper Lough Macnean, 18 May 2002, HJN & RHN.

Questionable native status

Recent taxonomic study has made subsp. nigra more readily identifiable and apart from the related but more decidedly coastal V. lathyroides (Spring Vetch), which has never been found in Fermanagh, subsp. nigra is the only form of the aggregate that is ever considered native. The current author (RSF) has doubts on this matter however, since the archaeological evidence for the presence of Narrow-leaved Vetch quoted in Godwin (1975, p. 180), points back only as far as the Roman period in England. Furthermore, in B & I, subsp. nigra appears confined to lowland grassy and wayside waste places on dry, sandy soils and, if native, it is more likely so in coastal habitats such as dunes, shingle, sea-cliffs and heaths. At its inland sites, subsp. nigra is very likely most often an introduction occurring in similar types of grassy places. Furthermore, it has been suggested (D.A. Pearman, in: Preston et al. 2002) that mis-identification for the widely planted, more robust fodder and green manure form of the species, subsp. segetalis, is probably quite frequent.

European and world occurrence

This form of vetch is thought to have originated somewhere in Europe, W Asia and N Africa, to all of which it is considered native by Hultén & Fries (1986, Map 1209). These authors regard Narrow-leaved Vetch as the original form of the fodder plant that was very widely planted and spread by agriculture around the globe. Their map shows the native area shaded and stretching from S Fennoscandia to the NW coast of Africa, eastwards into W Asia and south into Turkey, Asia Minor and NE Egypt.

Beyond these areas, the distribution of subsp. nigra as an agricultural introduction is scattered very widely across Greenland, Iceland and from SW Asia to the Far East and to Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and the South Sea Isles. It is also introduced in Africa in countries such as Ethiopia, East Africa and the Cape Province and also in both N & S America (Hultén & Fries 1986, Map 1209).

In phytogeographical terms, V. sativa is regarded as European southern-temperate (Preston & Hill 1997), but no phytogeographical element has been allocated to either V. angustifolia or to its synonym, this particular subspecies.