Vicia leucophaea (Mogollon Vetch)
Family
FABACEAE
Common Name
Mogollon Vetch
Description
An herb with tendrils, pinnately compound leaves, white to cream papilionoid corolla 7-9 mm long, and appressed-villous legume 25-40 mm long. The stylar hairs are medial, encircling the style.
Distribution
Southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona to southern Durango.
Habitat
Pine forests (Kearney and Peebles 1969); Wooded slopes (Martin and Hutchins 1980); Cool slopes, burned over pineland (from specimen citations in Gunn 1979); Bosque de Quercus - Pinus (Alvaredo 21, 114); Dry hills (Metcalfe s.n.); Aspect - SSE, concave upper slope, overstory - ponderosa pine, occasional Pseudotsuga menziesii, understory dominants - Muhlenbergia virescens, Bromus frondosus, Poa fendleri, Festuca arizonica (Moir & FItzhugh 469);
Remarks
Martin and Hutchins (1980) map the species from Catron and Grant counties, New Mexico. Kearney and Peebles (1969) note the species to occur in Arizona from "southern Apache County to Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima counties, where it occurs in pine forests. Gunn (1979) records the species from those states and cites records from Chihuahua, Sonora and Durango. None of these authors indicate rarity of the species, or indicate anything unique and rare about habitat.
Conservation Considerations
A Sierra Madrean species that comes into the United States where that floristic influence is strong. There is no indication of rarity or of special nature of habitat. It is a peripheral that enters southwestern New Mexico.
Important Literature
Martin, W.C., and C.R. Hutchins. 1980. A Flora of New Mexico, vol. 1. J. Cramer, Vaduz.
Kearney, T.H., and R.H. Peebles. 1969. Arizona Flora, 2nd ed. (with supplement by J.T. Howell, Elizabeth McClintock, et al.). Univ. California Press, Berkeley. 1085 pp.
Gunn, C.R. 1979. Genus Vicia with notes about tribe Vicieae (Fabaceae) in Mexico and Central America. USDA Tech. Bull. 1601, U.S. Govt. Print. Office. 41 pp.
Information Compiled By
Richard Spellenberg 1998
For distribution maps and more information, visit Natural Heritage New Mexico