Citation: Retz., Obs. Bot. 3:39 (1783).

Synonymy: V. calcarata sensu J. Black, Fl.S. Aust. 476 (1948), ?non Desf.

Common name: Spurred vetch, (squarestemmed or one-flower) vetch.

Description:
Procumbent to erect annual; stems 5-80 cm long, sparingly pubescent to appressed-grey-hairy, few to many, branching below; leaves 2-7 cm long, without tendrils; leaflets 4-8-paired, linear or oblanceolate or oblong to elliptic, 8-30 X 1-8 mm, obtuse, truncate to emarginate, mucronulate or not, attenuate into a short petiolule, minutely hairy; tendril simple or branched; stipules lanceolate to semihastate, or bipartite, 3-6 mm long, entire to sparsely dentate, glabrous or with white pilose hairs.

Flowers 12-20 mm long (in S.Aust.), 1-4 in axillary racemes near the summit of the peduncles; peduncles 9-55 mm long, shorter than the subtending leaves, ending in a terminal awn; bract subulate, to 0.5 mm; calyx campanulate, 4-5 mm long, on a pedicel c. 1 mm long, covered with white appressed pilose hairs, mouth oblique; teeth unequal, triangular-lanceolate, slightly shorter than the tube; petals violet to blue, 3 times as long as the calyx, standard oblong, emarginate, longest, 5-6 mm broad, conduplicate, with distinct purple veins; wings oblong, with narrow long auricles, white and dark-blue; keel shortest, spathulate, on a very long claw, blue- to violet-tipped.

Pod short-stipitate, oblong-linear, 3-50 X 8-12 mm, (in S.Aust.) slightly constricted between the seeds, short-beaked, glabrous, occasionally with hairs along the sutures, nerved, 3-7-seeded; seed somewhat compressed to almost globular, 4-5 mm across (in S. Aust.), smooth to faintly pitted, brown mottled black to blackish; hilum short, one-sixth of the circumference, oblong-linear, whitish.

Image source: fig. 347B in J.P. Jessop and H.R. Toelken Ed. 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Zohary (1972) Flora Palaestina 2:t. 284; Chrtková-Zertová (1979) Flora Iranica 140:t. 24, fig. 1.

Distribution:    all States. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: probably the whole year round, depending on rainfall.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: The species is very variable and several infraspecific combinations have been made. P. W. Ball (1968) Flora Europaea 2:133, recognised 2 subspecies.

Key to Infraspecific taxa:

1. subsp. monantha. Racemes 1- or 2-flowered; petals 10-15 mm; pod 20-35 x 6-8.5 mm; seeds less than 3.5 mm, brown
2. subsp. triflora (Ten.)B.L. Burtt & P. Lewis, Kew Bull. 1949:510 (1950). Racemes 2-4flowered; petals 14-20 mm; pod 30-50 x 8.5-12 mm; seeds more than 3.5 mm, blackish

Author: Not yet available