Vicia caroliniana Walter. Common name: Pale Vetch, Wood Vetch, Carolina Vetch. Phenology: Apr-Jun; May-Jul. Habitat: Forests, woodlands, and disturbed areas. Distribution: NY west to WI, south to s. GA, s. MS, and c. TX.
Origin/Endemic status: Native
Synonymy ⓘ: = Ar, C, Can, F, FNA11.2, G, Il, K4, Mi, Mo3, NY, Pa, SE3, Tat, Tn, Tx, Va, W, WH3, WV, Isely (1998); > Vicia caroliniana Walter — RAB, S, S13; > Vicia hugeri Small — RAB, S, S13; Vicia caroliniana Walter. Basionym: Vicia caroliniana Walter 1788
Links to other floras: = Vicia caroliniana - FNA11.2
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Wetland Indicator Status:
- Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain: FACU
- Eastern Mountains and Piedmont: FACU
- Great Plains: UPL
- Midwest: UPL
- Northcentral & Northeast: UPL
Heliophily ⓘ: 5
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Horticultural Information
Intro: Sprawling, trailing or climbing, rhizomatous perennial of dry (or occasionally moist) forests, woodlands and disturbed areas.
Stems: Stems several from base, hollow, slightly winged, mostly smooth.
Leaves: Leaves alternate, on short petioles with stipules at the base, pinnately divided into 4-25 pairs of narrowly elliptic to oblong-lance-shaped leaflets with a tiny spine at the tip and dense hairs above and beneath (leaflets alternate on the rachis). Tendrils extend from leaf ends.
Inforescence:
Flowers: Flowers in stalked, one-sided racemes, 3-4 in. long, from leaf axils; oriented parallel to the ground or nodding; pale lavender to white; about 1/4 in. long; bilaterally symmetric; tubular, with typical pea-flower shape.
Fruits: Fruit a flattened, narrowly oblong pod with a long-beaked tip.
Comments:
Height: 1-5 ft. (long)
plant sale text:
bloom table text:
description: Sprawling, trailing or climbing, rhizomatous perennial of dry (or occasionally moist) forests, woodlands and disturbed areas.
stems: Stems several from base, hollow, slightly winged, mostly smooth.
leaves: Leaves alternate, on short petioles with stipules at the base, pinnately divided into 4-25 pairs of narrowly elliptic to oblong-lance-shaped leaflets with a tiny spine at the tip and dense hairs above and beneath (leaflets alternate on the rachis). Tendrils extend from leaf ends.
inflorescence:
flowers: Flowers in stalked, one-sided racemes, 3-4 in. long, from leaf axils; oriented parallel to the ground or nodding; pale lavender to white; about 1/4 in. long; bilaterally symmetric; tubular, with typical pea-flower shape.
fruits: Fruit a flattened, narrowly oblong pod with a long-beaked tip.
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