Vicia menziesii Sprengel (Fabaceae) Rediscovered: Its Taxonomic Relationships

Abstract

Taxonomic relationships among five taxa of Vicia, traditionally recognized at the species level, were studied. Data used included plant and seed morphology, seed amino acid content, palynology, and cytology. Two Old World species, V. dumetorum Linnaeus and V. pisij'ormis Linnaeus, are shown not to be closely related to the Hawaiian and American taxa. The Hawaiian species, V. menziesii Sprengel, is maintained as a species and is shown to be closely related to V. gigantea Hooker of North America and V. nigricans Hooker & Arnott of South America. The latter two species are treated as subspecies under the name V. nigricans. The karyotype and chromosome number are reported for the first time for the endangered species, V. menziesii.