Vicia narbonensisL.

purple broad vetch

WFO wfo-0000212761 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Vicia narbonensis, photographed by Konstantin Grebennikov
fig. a Konstantin Grebennikov, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-03 / obs. 196457737
Vicia narbonensis, photographed by Oleg Kosterin
fig. b Oleg Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 110510892
Vicia narbonensis, photographed by Oleg Kosterin
fig. c Oleg Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 111020327
Vicia narbonensis, photographed by Karim Haddad
fig. d Karim Haddad, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 68892151
Vicia narbonensis, photographed by Quentin Groom
fig. e Quentin Groom, CC0 1.0 / obs. 32147078
Vicia narbonensis, photographed by Mitch Van Dyke
fig. f Mitch Van Dyke, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 187360901
Vicia narbonensis, photographed by Oleg Kosterin
fig. g Oleg Kosterin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 110938972
Vicia narbonensis, photographed by Дауд Арсанукаев
fig. h Дауд Арсанукаев, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188740484

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 38 botanical countries

Regions where Vicia narbonensis is native: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Sinai, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Albania, Bulgaria, Corse, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Portugal, Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Türkiye-in-Europe AlgeriaEgyptLibyaMoroccoTunisiaCyprusEast Aegean Is.IranIraqKazakhstanKirgizstanLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusPalestineSinaiTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanUzbekistanPakistanWest HimalayaAlbaniaBulgariaCorseFranceGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.PortugalRomaniaSiciliaSpainTürkiye-in-Europe MadeiraSardegna
Native distribution of Vicia narbonensis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Sinai SIN
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
Albania ALB EUROPE
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
France FRA
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Egypt EGY
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL
West Himalaya WHM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 45 in flower of 50 examined

Peak flowering in Feb. Each bar is the share of Vicia narbonensis observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 45 of 50 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 21 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Bona narbonensis (L.) Medik.
  • Bona speciosa Medik.
  • Faba bona Medik.
  • Faba bona subsp. minuta (Alef.) Soják
  • Faba narbonensis (L.) Schur
  • Faba serratifolia Fuss
  • Faba vulgaris var. minuta Alef.
  • Vicia heterophylla Rchb.
  • Vicia latifolia Moench
  • Vicia monadelpha Roth
  • Vicia narbonensis var. culta Alef.
  • Vicia narbonensis var. genuina Gren. & Godr.
  • Vicia narbonensis var. heterophylla Rouy
  • Vicia narbonensis var. integrifolia Ser.
  • Vicia narbonensis var. jordanica H.I.Schäf.
  • Vicia narbonensis var. narbonensis
  • Vicia narbonensis var. platycarpos (Roth) Alef.
  • Vicia narbonensis var. salmonea (Mouterde) H.I.Schäf.
  • Vicia pauciflora Formánek
  • Vicia platycarpos Roth
  • Vicia serratifolia subsp. salmonea Mouterde

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.