Click on images to enlarge
habit in flower (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
habit in fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
once-compound leaves with relatively narrow leaflets (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of leaf showing tendrils and leaflets with minutely pointed tips (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of old and young flowers in the upper leaf forks (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of pea-shaped flowers (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of stems, leaflets and flowers from side-on (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
immature fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of hairless immature fruit (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
close-up of blackish-brown mature fruit that has already released its seeds (Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, USGS)
close-up of seeds (Photo: Steve Hurst at USDA PLANTS Database)
seedling (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
Scientific Name
Vicia sativa L. subsp. nigra (L.) Ehrh.
Synonyms
Vicia angustifolia L.Vicia sativa L. subsp. angustifolia (L.) Gaudich.Vicia sativa L. var. angustifolia (L.) Ser.Vicia sativa L. var. nigra L.
Family
Fabaceae (Queensland, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory)Fabaceae: sub-family Faboideae (New South Wales)Leguminosae (South Australia)Papilionaceae (Western Australia)
Common Names
black-pod vetch, blackpod vetch, common vetch, garden vetch, narrow leaved vetch, narrow-leaf vetch, narrowleaf vetch, narrow-leaved vetch, purple vetch, slender vetch, spring vetch, tare, vetch
Origin
Native to northern and eastern Africa, Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, western Asia, Russia, Mongolia, China and the Indian Sub-continent.
Naturalised Distribution
Widely naturalised in southern and eastern Australia (i.e. in south-eastern Queensland, eastern New South Wales, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, south-eastern South Australia and the south-western and southern parts of Western Australia). It is occasionally also naturalised in central Queensland and inland parts of New South Wales, and has been recorded on both Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island.
Also widely naturalised in other parts of the world, including large parts of North America (i.e. Alaska, Canada and the USA), south-eastern Asia, the Mascarenes (i.e. Mauritius, La Reunion and Rodriguez), New Zealand and Hawaii.
Notes
Narrow-leaved vetch (Vicia sativa subsp. nigra) is regarded as an environmental weed in Victoria and Western Australia.