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Fabaceae family

Garden Vetch (subsp. nigra) Vicia sativa subsp. nigra subspecies

Also known as: narrow-leaf vetch

Garden Vetch (subsp. nigra) is an introduced annual vine, found in Alaska, Canada, and Hawaii.

⚠ Invasive here — plant a native instead USDA + GBIF

Garden Vetch (subsp. nigra) is flagged invasive in the U.S. These natives fill a similar niche — same growth habit, bloom season, height, and region — so you keep the look and feed local wildlife instead of spreading a problem.

Part of why it adapts so well: Garden Vetch (subsp. nigra) is a polyploid complex — multiple chromosome races are on record (2n = 12, 14, 24). Spare genome copies give a plant extra raw material to evolve fast, and polyploidy is a documented correlate of successful plant invasions (te Beest et al. 2012). A labelled association from open cytology (ChromoDB), not a prediction for your specific site.

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Matched on growth habit · bloom months · mature height · shared U.S. range (USDA + GBIF) — a starting point, not a prescription.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
Hardiness
≥ zone 4 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
Lifespan
Annual
In the garden
Vine / climber layer — Sits in the vine of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

Wildlife & pollinators

How pollinator value is scored →
❧ Caterpillar hosts ~16 caterpillar species

Vicia supports ~16 caterpillar species.

Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a moderate genus.

Recorded feeding on Vicia in North America, including:

Actebia fennica · owlet moth Anaplectoides pressus · owlet moth Arctia caja · Garden Tiger Autographa californica · Alfalfa Looper Moth Caenurgia chloropha · Vetch Looper Moth Caenurgina caerulea · owlet moth
+ 8 more species →
Cnephasia longana · leafroller moth Colias alexandra · Queen Alexandra's Sulphur Colias eurytheme · Orange Sulphur Colias meadii · Mead's Sulphur Colias occidentalis · Western Sulphur Colias philodice · Clouded Sulphur Cydia nigricana · leafroller moth Dargida procinctus · Olive Green Cutworm
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Sources for this entry (12) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)
[07] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[08] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[10] Other common names — Wikidata (CC0)
[11] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[12] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
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Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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