''Clitoria mariana'', known by the common names butterfly pea and Atlantic pigeon wings, is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...

herbaceous plant Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent wood, woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennial plant, perennials, and nearly all Annual plant, annuals and Biennial plant, biennials. Definition ...

in the pea family, Fabaceae. The plant is native to the United States.

Description

Clitoria mariana by Mary Vaux Walcott 1934

The ascending, sometimes twining stem of ''Clitoria mariana'' is 45 to 60 centimeters long. The leaves are pinnately trifoliate, borne on petioles with stipules. The thin, smooth or slightly hairy leaflets are ovate, 2.5 to 11 centimeters long, and 1.5 to 5 centimeters wide. It produces purple flowers in summer. The flowers are axillary, usually solitary, and

resupinate Resupination is derived from the Latin word ''resupinus'', meaning "bent back with the face upward" or "on the back". "Resupination" is the noun form of the adjective "resupine" which means "being upside-down, supine or facing upward". The word " ...

. The calyx is tubular. The corolla of the flower is about 5 centimeters long, its wings and keel much shorter than the standard. The fruit is a linear oblong pod, 25 millimeters long and 5 millimeters wide.

Distribution

The plant is

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to the eastern, southern, and central United States west to

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ke ...

and

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. USDA, NRCS. 2014. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC 27401-4901 USA. It is also found in Asia, in: Bhutan, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand,

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, and southern China ( Guangxi,

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

) 'eFloras (2008). Published on the Internet (http://www.efloras.org). Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA. In the United States it has been recorded in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, and West Virginia.

Ecology

It is a larval host to the

long-tailed skipper The long-tailed skipper (''Urbanus proteus'') is a spread-winged skipper butterfly found throughout tropical and subtropical South America, south to Argentina and north into the Eastern United States and southern Ontario. It cannot live in area ...

Conservation

It is listed as an endangered species by the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The range of ''Clitoria mariana'' also includes parts of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

, Laos,

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

, and the Chinese provinces of Guangxi, and

. In

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, it grows in habitats such as dry open forests, shale barrens, and rocky or sandy woodlands. Virginia Botanical Associates. (2014). Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora (http://www.vaplantatlas.org). c/o Virginia Botanical Associates, Blacksburg. The presence of this species is dependent on appropriate

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

, and it may be eliminated from an area by development, changes in land use, or competition with invasive species.

References

External links

USDA Plants Profile for ''Clitoria mariana'' (Atlantic pigeonwings) GRIN Database: ''Clitoria mariana''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q10865523

mariana Mariana may refer to: Literature * ''Mariana'' (Dickens novel), a 1940 novel by Monica Dickens * ''Mariana'' (poem), a poem by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson * ''Mariana'' (Vaz novel), a 1997 novel by Katherine Vaz Music *"Mariana", a so ...

Flora of North America Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus