ABSTRACT Over 90 species (99 taxa) of the four principle genera of the Vicieae from the Near East were subjected to morphological and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analyses. The species were grouped in 26 clusters according to their testa patterns. A key based on seed characteristics has been constructed, to be used by botanists and archeologists. It includes most species of Israel and its environs, several of which are either cultivated taxa or their ancestors. The testa patterns can be used as specific taxonomic criteria in certain cases, but only a few associations between the seed-character groups and the systematic entities have been found. Among the genera, Lathyrusseems to be the most diverse in seed coat patterns.