Relatives
Cicer songaricum Steph. ex DC. - Dzungarian chickpea.
Taxonomic position.
Family Fabaceae Lindl. genus Cicer L.Morphology and biology.
Perennial glandulosely pubescent plant 15-60 cm tall. Stems ascending or erect, slightly flexuous. Leaves numerous, longer than internodes, with bent rachis, terminating with a leaflet or unbranched tendril. Leaf consists of 4-8 pairs of ovate or cuneate leaflets. Lower leaves with entire margin, upper serrately dentate, 1-1,5 cm long. Stipules ovate, almost always as long as lower leaflets. Peduncles 1-flowered, almost 2 times shorter than leaves, with a subulate point at the apex. Calyx 1-1,5 cm long, with broadly lanceolate teeth as long as the tube or scarcely longer. Corolla light violet-blue, 2-2,5 cm long. Standard broad, obovate. Wings shorter than standard, keel broad, beak-shaped. Pods 2,5-3 cm long, pubescent, ovately oblong, beaked. seeds about 0,5 cm long, ovoid, brown-violet, slightly wrinkled, with a strongly bent beak.Flowers in June - July, fruits in July - August.
Distribution.
General distribution: Dzungarian-Kashgarian region. In the former USSR - West Siberia - Altai; Middle Asia - Tien Shan, Pamir-Alai, Dzungarian-Tarbagatai regions.Ecology.
On stony-debris mountain slopes, in forest, shrubbery and subalpine zones.Use and economic value.
Forage. Wild relative of cultivated chickpea.References:
Wulf VV., Maleyeva OF. 1969. The World Resources of the Useful Plants. Reference book. Leningrad: Nauka, 563 p. (In Russian).Fedorov AA., ed. 1987. Flora of the European part of the USSR. V.6. P.108. (In Russian).
Shishkin BK., Bobrov EG., ed. 1945. Flora USSR. V.11. P.296. (In Russian).
Cherepanov SK. 1995. Vascular plants of Russia and adjacent states (the former USSR). St.Petersburg. 990 p. (In Russian).