Vicia villosa, known as the hairy vetch, fodder vetch or winter vetch, is a plant native to Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and western Asia. It is a legume, grown as a forage crop

Fodder

Fodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin...

.

Hairy vetch is very similar to tufted vetch

Tufted Vetch

Vicia cracca , is a species of vetch native to Europe and Asia. It occurs on other continents as an introduced species, including North America, where it is a common weed...

, the most noticeable difference being that tufted vetch has a smooth stem.

Several subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 are recognized:

• Vicia villosa ssp. ambigua (Guss.) Kerguelen (= ssp. elegantissima, ssp. pseudocracca)
• Vicia villosa ssp. eriocarpa (Hausskn.) P.W.Ball
• Vicia villosa ssp. microphylla (d'Urv.) P.W.Ball
• Vicia villosa ssp. varia (Host) Corb. (= ssp. dasycarpa)
• Vicia villosa ssp. villosa

Cultivation

Hairy vetch is widely used by organic growers in the United States as a winter cover crop, as it is both winter hardy and can fix as much as 200 lb/acre of atmospheric nitrogen. Disadvantages of hairy vetch in production agriculture are related to the crop having a portion of hard seed and its tendency to shatter seed early in the season - leading to it remaining in the field as a weed later in the season. This can be a particular problem in wheat production.

Companion plant

Organic gardeners often plant hairy vetch (a nitrogen-fixing legume) as a companion plant to tomatoes, as an alternative to rotating crops in small growing areas. When it is time to plant tomatoes in the spring, the hairy vetch is cut to the ground and the tomato seedlings are planted in holes dug through the matted residue and stubble. The vetch vegetation provides both nitrogen and an instant mulch that preserves moisture and keeps weeds from sprouting. Organic Gardening Magazine

External links

• Managing Cover Crops Profitably
• Alternative Field Crops Manual
• TurfFiles Hairy Vetch Weed ID
• http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=photos_index&where-lifeform=any&rel-taxon=contains&where-taxon=Vicia+villosa&rel-namesoup=matchphrase&where-namesoup=&rel-location=matchphrase&where-location=&rel-county=eq&where-county=any&rel-state=eq&where-state=any&rel-country=eq&where-country=any&where-collectn=any&rel-photographer=contains&where-photographer=&rel-kwid=equals&where-kwid=&max_rows=24Photo gallery]