Japanese name: カスマグサ Scientific name:Vicia tetrasperma
[Overview]
An annual or biennial found along roadsides and in vacant lots.
The stem is vine-like and grows to 60 cm long.
The leaves are even-pinnately compound, consisting of 8–12 leaflets, and the tip becomes a tendril.
The leaflets are narrowly oblong, 1.2–1.7 cm long and 0.2–0.4 cm wide.
There are narrowly ovate to linear stipules.
Short racemes bear 1–3 pale bluish-purple pea-shaped flowers.
The calyx lobes are unequal in length and shorter than the calyx tube.
The fruit is a legume, elliptic, 1–1.5 cm long and 0.3–0.4 cm wide, with a hairless surface.
Each pod contains 3–6 nearly spherical seeds.
[Notes]
The Japanese name comes from its size and shape, which are intermediate between Yahazu-endo (Karasu-no-endo) and Suzume-no-endo, and means a plant "between" (ma) "ka" (crow) and "su" (sparrow).
