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Fabaceae FAMILY

Vicia villosa

Vicia villosa

Edibility
2/5
Medicinal
2/5

Safety & Hazards

There is some evidence that the seed may be toxic but this has only been shown under laboratory conditions, there are no recorded cases of poisoning by this plant in Britain[1]. The seeds contain the anti-nutritional compound L-canavanine, a competitive inhibitor of arginine decarboxylase. This is removed by soaking the seeds in water prior to cooking and discarding the soak water[2].

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual/Perennial
Growth—

Vicia villosa is a plant of the temperate zone, where it is found at elevations up to 2,200 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 12 - 22°c, but can tolerate 2 - 28°c[3]. When dormant, the plant can survive temperatures down to about -5°c, but young growth can be severely damaged at -1°c[3]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 700 - 900mm, but tolerates 300 - 1,700mm[3]. Species in this genus generally succeed in any well-drained soil in a sunny position if the soil is reliably moist throughout the growing season, otherwise they are best grown in semi-shade[4]. Prefers a pH in the range 6 - 7, tolerating 4.9 - 8.2[3]. Established plants are moderately drought tolerant[5]. The plant regenerates well, except on bare, hard-setting soil surfaces[5]. The plant provides a good groundcover within 70 - 90 days, flowers after 115 - 190 days, and matures in 135 - 255 days[3]. The plant reputedly has allelopathic properties that help suppress weeds[5]. This species is not very deep rooting[6]. Plants are somewhat self-fertile, though fertilization is greatly increased with insect pollination. The plant has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria, these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby[7].

Propagation

Seed - sow in situ in spring or autumn. It has a hard seedcoat and may benefit from scarification before sowing in order to speed up and improve germination. This can usually be done by pouring a small amount of nearly boiling water on the seeds (being careful not to cook them!) and then soaking them for 12 - 24 hours in warm water. By this time they should have imbibed moisture and swollen - if they have not, then carefully make a nick in the seedcoat (being careful not to damage the embryo) and soak for a further 12 hours before sowing. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Vicia+villosa>

Pollinators

Bees, Self

References

  1. [1]Poisonous Plants in Britain and their Effects on Animals and Man. — Cooper. M. and Johnson. A. · HMSO · 1984 · ISBN 0112425291 ↩︎Concentrates mainly on the effects of poisonous plants to livestock.
  2. [2]Single-flowered vetch (Vicia articulata Hornem.): A relic crop in Italy — Laghetti G.; Piergiovanni A.R.; Galasso I.; Hammer K. & Perr · 200 ↩︎
  3. [3]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
  4. [4]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  5. [5]Tropical Forages — http://www.tropicalforages.info/key/Forages/Media/Html/index.htm ↩︎Mainly focussed on forage plants, the site gives a lot of information on the plant, with a good botanical description, details of cultivation, plant uses and a good selection of photographs.
  6. [6]Green Manures. — Woodward. L. Burge. P. · Elm Farm Research Centre. · 1982 · ISBN - ↩︎Green manure crops for temperate areas. Quite a lot of information on a number of species.
  7. [7]Nodulation Plants in GRIN Taxonomy — United States Department of Agriculture · http://www.ars-grin.gov/~sbmljw/cgi-bin/taxnodul.pl?language=en ↩︎An online database listing plants that have either positive or negative reports on root and stem nodulation with nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
  8. [8]Flora of the USSR. — Komarov. V. L. · Israel Program for Scientific Translation · 1968 · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org · ISBN - ↩︎An immense (25 or more large volumes) and not yet completed translation of the Russian flora. Full of information on plant uses and habitats but heavy going for casual readers. It can be downloaded from the Internet.
  9. [9]Flora of China — Missouri Botanical Garden Press; St. Louis. · 1994 · http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/ ↩︎An excellent, comprehensive resource in 25 volumes. In addition to the botanical information the flora also gives basic information on habitat and some uses. An on-line version is also available.
  10. [10]Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. — Hedrick. U. P. · Dover Publications · 1972 · ISBN 0-486-20459-6 ↩︎Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.
  11. [11]Mansfeld's Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Plants — http://mansfeld.ipk-gatersleben.de/pls/htmldb_pgrc/f?p=185:3:4292127278597336 ↩︎Terse details of a huge range of useful plants.
  12. [12]Plants Database — United States Department of Agriculture · http://plants.usda.gov/java/factSheet ↩︎An online database with an excellent collection of fact sheets about native N. American plants.
  13. [13]Invasive Species Compendium — http://www.cabi.org ↩︎An immense resource - in depth information on over 900 species of invasive plants (it also has information on animals, fungi etc).
  14. [14]Flora of the British Isles. — Clapham, Tutin and Warburg. · Cambridge University Press · 1962 · ISBN - ↩︎A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.
  15. [15]Plants for Human Consumption. — Kunkel. G. · Koeltz Scientific Books · 1984 · ISBN 3874292169 ↩︎An excellent book for the dedicated. A comprehensive listing of Latin names with a brief list of edible parts.