Flowers of Israel: Winter vetch

Vicia villosa, Vicia dasycarpa, Winter vetch,
Hebrew: ביקיה שעירה , Arabic: البيقية الموبرة


Scientific name:		Vicia villosa Roth
Synonym name:		Vicia dasycarpa Ten.
Common name:		Winter vetch
Hebrew name:		ביקיה שעירה
Arabic name:		البيقية الموبرة
Plant Family:		Papillionaceae, פרפרניים


Life form:		Stems
Stems:		Stems 50-200 cm in length; usually pubescent (covered with soft woolly fuzz)
Leaves:		Alternate, compound
Flowers:		Violet
Fruits / Pods:		Legume; oblong, flattened, obliquely beaked, 2 to 3 cm long and 7 to 10 mm wide; dark to light straw colored, and can be pubescent or glabrous; seeds, smooth, round, black
Flowering Period:		February, March, April, May
Habitat:		Batha, Phrygana
Distribution:		The Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands
Chorotype:		Euro-Siberian – Med – Euro-Turanian
Summer shedding:		Ephemeral

Derivation of the botanical name:

Vicia, vetch; the classical Latin name for these herbs, perhaps related to vincire to bind.

villosa, shaggy, hairy.
dasycarpa , Greek dasy δασυϛ, shaggy, thickly, markedly hairy; carpa, karpos, fruit; with shaggy fruits.
vetch, late 14c., from Old North French, veche, variant of Old French vece, from Latin vicia.
The Hebrew name: בקיה, bakia, Post Biblical Hebrew: vetch; Greek: bikion, from Arabic: بيقية (bikia) or باقية (bakya). Indo-European

The standard author abbreviation Roth is used to indicate Albrecht Wilhelm Roth (1757 – 1834), a German physician and botanist.
The standard author abbreviation Ten. is used to indicate Michele Tenore (1780 – 1861), an Italian botanist.