Onobrychis

Onobrychis, the sainfoins, are a genus of Eurasian perennial herbaceous plants of the legume family. About 206 species are presently accepted. The Flora Europaea lists 23 species of Onobrychis; the main centre of diversity extends from Central Asia to Iran, with 56 species - 27 of which are endemic - in the latter country alone. O. viciifolia is naturalized throughout many countries in Europe and North America grasslands on calcareous soils.

Description

The leaves are pinnate, alternate, with 6 to 14 pairs of oblong to linear leaflets. Sainfoins have pale pink flowers, typically blooming between June and September and pollinated by honey bees and solitary bees. The rounded single-seeded pods bear prominent spikes or similar protrusions in many species, enabling them to cling to the fur of large mammals and be thus distributed.

Taxonomy

List of species

The following species are considered at least provisionally valid by the International Legume Database & Information Service; some notable subspecies are also listed:

Onobrychis acaulis Bornm.
Onobrychis aequidentata d'Urv.
Onobrychis afghanica Sirj. & Rech.f.
Onobrychis alatavica Bajtenov
Onobrychis alba Desv.
* Onobrychis alba ssp. calcarea P.W.Ball
Onobrychis aliacmonia Rech.f.
Onobrychis altissima Grossh.
Onobrychis alyassinicus Parsa
Onobrychis amoena Popov & Vved.
Onobrychis andalanica Bornm.
Onobrychis angustifolia Chinth.
Onobrychis arenaria DC.
* Onobrychis arenaria ssp. arenaria
* Onobrychis arenaria ssp. sibirica P.W.Ball
* Onobrychis arenaria ssp. tommasinii Asch. & Graebn.
Onobrychis argyrea Boiss.
Onobrychis arnacantha Boiss.
Onobrychis atropatana Boiss.
Onobrychis aucheri Boiss.
Onobrychis baldshuanica Sirj.
Onobrychis bertiscea Sirj. & Rech.f.
Onobrychis bicornis Vassilcz.
Onobrychis biebersteinii Sirj.
Onobrychis bobrovii Grossh.
Onobrychis buhseana Boiss.
Onobrychis "buhseana" Bunge
Onobrychis bungei Boiss.
Onobrychis cadevallii Jahand. et al.
Onobrychis caput-galli Lam. Cock's Head
Onobrychis chorassanica Boiss.
Onobrychis conferta Desv.
* Onobrychis conferta ssp. hispanica Guitt. & Kerguelen
Onobrychis cornuta Desv.
Onobrychis crista-galli Lam.
Onobrychis cyri Grossh.
Onobrychis daghestanica Grossh.
Onobrychis darwasicaa Vassilcz.
Onobrychis dealbata Stocks
Onobrychis degenii Dorfl.
Onobrychis depauperata Boiss.
Onobrychis dielsii Vassilcz.
Onobrychis ebenoides Boiss. & Spruner
Onobrychis echidna Lipsky
Onobrychis elymaitiaca Boiss. & Hausskn.
Onobrychis eubrychidea Boiss.
Onobrychis fallax Freyn & Sint.
Onobrychis ferganica Grossh.
Onobrychis freitagii Rech.f.
Onobrychis galegifolia Boiss.
Onobrychis garinensis
Onobrychis gaubae Bornm.
Onobrychis gontscharovii Vassilcz.
Onobrychis gracilis Besser
Onobrychis grandis Lipsky
Onobrychis grossheimii B.Fedtsch.
Onobrychis gypsicola Rech.f.
Onobrychis hajastana Grossh.
Onobrychis hamata Vassilcz.
Onobrychis haussknechtii Boiss.
Onobrychis heliocarpa Boiss.
Onobrychis heterophylla C.A.Mey.
Onobrychis hohenackerana C.A.Mey.
Onobrychis humilis G.López
* Onobrychis humilis ssp. humilis
* Onobrychis humilis ssp. matritensis Greuter & Burdet
Onobrychis hypargyrea Boiss.
Onobrychis iberica Grossh.
Onobrychis inermis Steven
Onobrychis iranica Bornm.
Onobrychis iranshahrii Rech.f.
Onobrychis jailae Czernova
Onobrychis kabylica Sirj.
Onobrychis kachetica Boiss. & Buhse
Onobrychis kemulariae Chinth.
Onobrychis kermanensis Rech.f.
Onobrychis kluchorica Chinth.
Onobrychis komarovii Grossh.
Onobrychis kotschyana Fenzl
Onobrychis lahidjanicus Parsa
Onobrychis laxiflora Baker
Onobrychis longipes Bunge
Onobrychis lunata Boiss.
Onobrychis luristanica Rech.f.
Onobrychis macrorrhiza Rech.f.
Onobrychis major Hand.-Mazz.
Onobrychis majorovii Grossh.
Onobrychis mazanderanica Rech.f.
Onobrychis megalobotrys Aitch. & Hemsl.
Onobrychis megaloptera Kovalevsk.
Onobrychis megataphros Boiss.
Onobrychis melanotricha Boiss.
Onobrychis mermuelleri Podlech & Rech.f.
Onobrychis meschetica Grossh.
Onobrychis michauxii DC.
Onobrychis micrantha Schrenk
Onobrychis microptera Baker
Onobrychis montana DC.
Onobrychis nemecii Sirj.
Onobrychis nikitinii Orazm.
Onobrychis novopokrovskii Vassilcz.
Onobrychis nummularia Boiss.
Onobrychis oxyodonta Boiss.
Onobrychis oxyptera Boiss.
Onobrychis oxytropoides Bunge
Onobrychis pallasii M. Bieb.
Onobrychis pallida Boiss. & Kotschy
Onobrychis paucidentata Pomel
Onobrychis persica Sirj. & Rech.f.
Onobrychis petraea Fisch.
Onobrychis pindicola Hausskn.
Onobrychis plantago Bornm.
Onobrychis poikilantha Rech.f.
Onobrychis psoraleifolia Boiss.
Onobrychis ptolemaica DC.
Onobrychis ptychophylla Sirj. & Rech.f.
Onobrychis pulchella Schrenk
Onobrychis pyrenaica Sirj.
Onobrychis radiata M.Bieb.
Onobrychis sauzakensis Sirj. & Rech.f.
Onobrychis saxatilis Lam.
Onobrychis schahuensis Bornm.
Onobrychis schuschajensis O.D.Agajeva
Onobrychis scrobiculata Boiss.
Onobrychis sennenii Sirj.
Onobrychis shahpurensis Rech.f.
Onobrychis sintenisii Bornm.
Onobrychis sirdjanicus Parsa
Onobrychis sojakii Rech.f.
Onobrychis sphaciotica Greuter
Onobrychis spinosissima Baker
Onobrychis splendida Rech.f. & Podlech
Onobrychis stenorhiza DC.
Onobrychis stewartii Baker
Onobrychis subacaulis Boiss.
Onobrychis subnitens Bornm.
Onobrychis supina DC.
Onobrychis susiana Nabelek
Onobrychis szovitsii Boiss.
Onobrychis talagonica Rech.f.
Onobrychis tavernieraefolia Boiss.
Onobrychis tesquicola Krytzka
Onobrychis tournefortii Desv.
Onobrychis transcaspica V.V.Nikitin
Onobrychis transcaucasica Grossh.
Onobrychis transsilvanica
Onobrychis vaginalis C.A.Mey.
Onobrychis vassilczenkoi Grossh.
Onobrychis verae Sirj.
Onobrychis venosa.Desv.
Onobrychis viciifolia Scop.
Onobrychis wettsteinii Nabelek
Etymology

Onobrychis means "devoured by donkeys", from Ancient Greek and . This refers to sainfoin's good properties as a forage plant for large mammalian herbivores.
Sainfoin is derived from Old French sain foin. In the words of the 16th-century soil scientist Olivier de Serres:

"The herb is called sain-foin in France, in Italy herba medica, in Provence and the Languedoc luzerne. From the inordinate praise the plant has been given, for its medical virtues and for fattening the livestock that graze on it, comes the term sain."

In northern European languages that have been less influenced by French, the plants' name usually derives from esparceto, the Provençal term for the similar-looking and closely related sweetvetches. Examples are Danish esparsette, Dutch esparcette, German Esparsette, Lithuanian esparceta, Polish sparceta, Russian ' and Swedish esparsett. Meanwhile, the Occitan name of sainfoin, luzerne, has in many languages come to mean species of the related genus Medicago, in particular Alfalfa.
The native name of the cock's head is one of the few words of the extinct Dacian language that have been recorded. The Dacians called this plant aniarsexe or aniassexie.

Distribution and habitat

Sainfoins are mostly subtropical plants, but their range extends throughout Europe as far north as southern Sweden. These plants grow on grassland, agricultural land and wasteland.

Ecology

Onobrychis species are used as food plants by the caterpillars of some Lepidoptera species, such as the case-bearer moth Coleophora colutella and the Damon Blue butterfly.

Uses

These highly nutritious plants were an important forage for heavy working horses in agriculture, and are still an excellent source of nectar for honey production as well as pollen for bee food. Because sainfoins are rich in tannins which protect proteins from hydrolysis in the rumen, the proteins are instead absorbed in the abomasum. Onobrychis typically have a deep taproot and so are very drought resistant, but do not recover well from overgrazing. Adapted to slow but steady growth in the arid steppe belt of Eurasia, sainfoins are difficult to establish as pasture, are not persistent in grassland, and only yield one crop of hay or seeds per year. Thus they are seldom grown in any significant extent, though O. viciifolia is met with somewhat more regularly.