Vicia monantha Retz.
Squarestem Vetch

Scientific Description

Twining or climbing plants. Stems terete, not spiny, glabrous; pustules or glands absent. Leaves or phylloclades clearly present, compound, alternate, continuous with stem, 60-80 mm long, glabrous, flat with flat margins; margins entire; tubercles absent, leaflets 10-12, pinnately arranged, terminal leaflet absent; pustules or glands absent. Stipules present and persistent to older leaves, 3-4 mm long, without glands, ribless. Pedicel present, 2 mm long, hairy. Bracteoles absent. Calyx 6 mm long, not accrescent, hairy, with simple hairs, ribless; pustules or glands absent. Corolla 15 mm long, multicoloured, mostly purple or blue, with some purple or blue spots, streaks or blotches; claws present; standard 15 mm long, glabrous, not auriculate, wings 14.5 mm long, not auriculate, keel 12 mm long, not beaked, not auriculate, glabrous. Stamens ten; anthers 0.2-0.3 mm long, at two different levels (filaments alternately long and short); filaments united in an open sheath with one free stamen, 11-12 mm long. Ovary; style 12 mm long, hairy or glandular towards the base, bearded (with a tuft of hairs at apex), flattened at apex. Fruit dehiscent (a pod or follicle), stipitate or sessile or subsessile, not constricted between the seeds, flat or compressed, not beaked. Flowers in April, May, July, August, October and November. Occurs in the South-West Botanical Province, in the Avon Wheatbelt IBRA regions.