§1 Plant
Vicia sativa L.
vernacular garden vetch — species · Fabaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb, Vine
- Duration
- Annual
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Fabaceae Lindl.
- Genus
- Vicia
§2a
Native status, by region
- AK Alaska Introduced
- CAN Canada Introduced
- HI Hawaii Introduced
- L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
- SPM St. Pierre & Miquelon Introduced
§2b
County-level range
· 14 counties across 2 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- Low
- Shade
- Low
- Moisture use
- High
- Fire
- None
- Salinity
- Low
- Anaerobic
- Low
- CaCO₃
- Low
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Frost-free days
- 80 min.
- pH range
- 6–7
- Root depth
- 12 in min.
- Fertility need
- Medium
- Soil texture
- medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Stem
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Mature height
- 4 ft
- Height @ 20 y
- 5 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Porous
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Purple
- Fruit colour
- Black
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- Low
- Toxicity
- Slight
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Early Spring
- Seed abundance
- High
- Seed begins
- Spring
- Seed ends
- Spring
- Spread rate
- Moderate
- Stratify
- Yes
- Seeds / lb
- 39,600
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- No Known Source
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- Medium
- Graze palatability
- Medium
- Palatable, human
- Yes
- Protein potential
- High
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 14 counties across 2 states/territories.
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/VISA ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/2975014 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25
fetched 2026-05-25T18:27:19Z