Anthyllis vulneraria L.
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Authority
Isely, Duane. 1981. Leguminosae of the United States. III. Subfamily Papilionoideae: tribes Sophoreae, Podalyrieae, Loteae. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 25 (3): 1-264.
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Family
Fabaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Annual or short-lived perennial, glabrate or pubescent herb 1-5 dm with several, usually ascending stems arising from a basal rosette. Pubescence spreading or appressed. First leaves of rosette long-petioled and unifoliolate, obovate to lanceolate, 1-5 cm, the subsequent ones pinnatifid or compound with several, small, lateral leaflets and a large terminal one; cauline leaves usually few, with ca. 5—11(—15) variously shaped, equal or unequal leaflets. Umbels exserted, terminal and solitary, or clustered and barely pedunculate with numerous flowers 11-15 mm; bracts palmately lobed. Pedicels .5-1 mm. Calyx ca. 9-12 mm in U.S. material, baggy-tumid, irregularly short-toothed. Corolla yellow or ochroleucous, or red-purple-tinged or -tipped; standard recurved to 45°, emarginate, conspicuously incurved-auriculate; blades of wings and keel hooked together, their claws exceeding calyx. Stamens monadelphous; filaments apically dilated. Ovary arising from a distinct disk, stipitate ca. 2 mm, quickly naviculate, glabrous; ovules 12; style 1 mm. Legume naviculate-elliptic, ca. 5-6 mm, membranous, indehiscent. Seed 1.
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Discussion
A. alpes tris Hegetschw. (1840). A. dillenii Schultes ex Steud. (1840). A. webbiana auct. and Hort. Anthyllis vulneraria is easily known on this continent by its rosettes of mixed unifoliolate and pinnatifid leaves, its palmately bracted heads. It is scarcely established, its status in the United States being that of a local waif, or an occasional inhabitant of experimental or botanic gardens. It is, however, routinely reported in manuals of the northeastern and north-central states (e.g., Fernald, 1950; Gleason, 1952). I have listed it as “established” because it is a recurrent waif; its seeds are contaminants of European legume seed, and are probably reintroduced into the United States every year. Anthyllis vulneraria is a multiracial complex of about 25 subspecies (Cullen, 1968) of which the foregoing describes those known in the United States. Genetic studies of varieties native to the British Isles (Marsden-Jones and Turrill, 1933) disclosed no incompatabilities between subspecific taxa. Where wild plants of different varieties grew together, hybrid types were present, and when a foreign variety was introduced, a hybrid swarm of types unlike any others developed. This work suggests that evolution within A. vulneraria has been due to geographic and ecological isolation. The synonymy does not include various varietal and subspecific names attributed in herbaria to introduced A. vulneraria.
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Distribution
Scattered, mostly old or classic collections from the n part of the country, and recent ones from New York and California; trial gardens elsewhere. Native primarily of Mediterranean region but some forms n in Europe where slightly cult for forage. Kidney vetch.
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