弯折巢菜 wan zhe chao cai

Herbs perennial, 30-100 cm tall. Stem erect, zigzagged. Leaves paripinnate, 3-7.5 cm; stipules triangular or lanceolate, 3-6 × 1-3 mm; leaflets 3- or 4-paired, narrowly oblong to ob­long-lanceolate, 30-65 × 11-20 mm, margin repand; lateral veins obvious; tendril absent, replaced by a mucro. Raceme unbranched, 2-7 cm, subequaling leaf, 7-10-flowered; bracts absent or caducous; pedicels ca. 2 mm. Flowers 15-20 mm. Ca­lyx subcampanulate, very shortly toothed. Corolla dark purple-red or light purple; standard oblong, ca. 15 mm, subequaling wings and keel. Ovary linear, ca. 6 mm. Legume oblong-rhom­boid, 25-40 × ca. 6 mm, leathery. Seeds 2-6. Fl. Jun-Oct.

Forests, bamboo thickets, valleys, riverbanks, along streams; 200-1400 m. Anhui, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang [Japan].

Vicia deflexa may be better treated within V. venosa, as was done by H. Ohashi and Y. Endo (in Iwatsuki et al., Fl. Japan IIb: 229. 2001).