§1 Plant
Vicia lutea L.
vernacular smooth yellow 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
- L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
§2b
County-level range
· 20 counties across 6 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- None
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Medium
- Fire
- None
- Salinity
- None
- Anaerobic
- None
- CaCO₃
- None
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -23 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 110 min.
- Precipitation
- 32–58 in/yr
- pH range
- 5.5–6.9
- Root depth
- 10 in min.
- Fertility need
- Medium
- Soil texture
- medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Crown
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Mature height
- 2 ft
- Foliage texture
- Fine
- Foliage colour
- Dark Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Porous
- Porosity (winter)
- Moderate
- Flower colour
- Yellow
- Fruit colour
- Black
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- High
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Spring
- Seed abundance
- Medium
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Fall
- Spread rate
- Moderate
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 40,000
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- High
- Graze palatability
- High
- Palatable, human
- No
- Protein potential
- High
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 20 counties across 6 states/territories.
California view state ↗ 5 I ▾
Louisiana view state ↗ 9 I ▾
Mississippi view state ↗ 1 I ▾
North Carolina view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Oregon view state ↗ 3 I ▾
Texas view state ↗ 1 I ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/VILU2 ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/2974753 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T20:46:58Z