Vigna repens Kuntze

• Title

  Vigna repens Kuntze

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton

• Scientific Name

  Vigna repens (L.) Kuntze

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Vigna repens Yellow Vigna Family Fabaceae Pea Family Dolichos repens Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, edition 10, 1163.1759. Dolichos luteolus Jacquin, Hortus Vindobonensis 1: 39. 1770. Vigna luteola Bentham, in Martius, Flora Brasiliensis 151: 194.1859. Vigna repens Kuntze, Revisio Genera Plantarum 212. 1891. The yellow-brown or yellow flowers of this herbaceous vine, common in moist thickets, waste grounds and along roads in Porto Rico, are attractive; it ranges from sea-level to at least 500 meters elevation, and grows also on the islands Vieques and Culebra. The plant has wide distribution nearly throughout the West Indies and tropical and subtropical continental America, north to the southern United States and Bermuda, as well as in the Old World tropics and sub-tropics, often becoming a weed. The original home of the species is unknown; botanically it was first described as from Jamaica; we regard it as native in Porto Rico, but have little evidence to support this view. We have learned of no popular Spanish name. The genus Vigna, named by the Italian botanist Savi in 1826, in honor of Domenico Vigne, a commentator on Theophrastus, includes some 30 species, natives of tropical and warm regions. They are herbaceous plants, some kinds vines, others upright, with 3-foliolate, stalked leaves, the leaflets mostly broad. The yellowish, or purplish flowers are clustered at the ends of long, axillary stalks; the calyx is 4-toothed, or 5-toothed; the standard petal is nearly orbicular, somewhat longer than the wings, the curved keel somewhat longer; of the 10 stamens, 9 are united by their filaments; the stalkless ovary contains many ovules, the style is hairy on its inner side, the stigma oblique. The slender, scarcely flattened pod splits into 8 valves when ripe. Vigna repens (trailing) is a slender, usually branched vine, reaching 2 meters in length, or shorter, the stems smooth, or more or less hairy, trailing, or climbing. The long-stalked leaves have 3, pointed leaflets, various in form, from broad to narrow, from 2 to 8 centimeters long. The short-stalked flowers are few, in small clusters at the ends of retrorsely hairy stalks, longer than the leaves; the bell-shaped calyx is oblique, with triangular, or lance-shaped teeth; the petals are yellow or yellowish-brown, the standard nearly 2 centimeters broad, or smaller. The hairy pods are 4 or 5 centimeters long. There are 5 other species of Vigna in the Porto Rico Flora.