Vicia faba
Tracheophyta
›Magnoliopsida›Fabaceae›Vicia›Vicia faba
Ecology
A robust annual occurring on waste ground, set-aside fields and rubbish tips. Most populations are casual. Lowland.
Status
Neophyte
Trends
V. faba, cultivated in the Middle East for eight thousand years, spread to W. Europe by the second millennium bc. Seeds from the Iron Age have been found in deposits at Glastonbury and it has been grown in British gardens since 1200 (Harvey, 1981). It is widely grown as a vegetable and increasingly as a fodder crop, and is frequently found as an escape from cultivation. Small-seeded variants are introduced with bird-seed.
World Distribution
As V. faba is not known as a wild plant, it presumably originated by selection in cultivation.
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Broad Habitats
Light (Ellenberg): 8
Moisture (Ellenberg): 4
Reaction (Ellenberg): 7
Nitrogen (Ellenberg): 7
Salt Tolerance (Ellenberg): 0
January Mean Temperature (Celsius): 3.7
July Mean Temperature (Celsius): 16.1
Annual Precipitation (mm): 734
Height (cm): 100
Perennation - primary
Annual
Life Form - primary
Therophyte (annual land plant)
Woodiness
Herbaceous
Clonality - primary
Little or no vegetative spread
Count of 10km squares in Great Britain: 377
Count of 10km squares in Ireland: 5
Count of 10km squares in the Channel Isles: 2
Weighted Changed Factor: 89
Weighted Change Factor Confidence (90%)
23
JNCC Designations
NBNSYS0000014122