''Lathyrus latifolius'', the perennial peavine, perennial pea, broad-leaved everlasting-pea,
or just everlasting pea, is a robust, sprawling
herbaceous
Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials.
Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous"
The fourth edition of t ...
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 wide ...
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
in the pea family
. It is native to Europe but is present on other continents, such as North America and Australia,
where it is most often seen along roadsides.
[Sierra Nevada Wildflowers, Karen Wiese, 2nd ed, 2013, p. 70]
Morphology
''Lathyrus latifolius'' has winged hairless stems, and alternating blue green compound leaves consisting of a single pair of
leaflets and a winged
petiole about long. The leaflets are narrowly
ovate
Ovate may refer to:
*Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts
*Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe
*Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd
*Vates
In modern English, the nouns vates () and ovat ...
or oblong-ovate, smooth along the margins, hairless and up to long and across. There is a branched tendril between the leaflets.
Racemes
Short
racemes
A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...
of 4–11 flowers are produced from the axils of the leaves. The flowers, which are unscented, are about across with a typical structure for ''
Faboideae'', with an upper standard and lower keel, enclosed by lateral
petals. There are 5 petals, which are purplish pink, fading with age. There is a green
calyx with 5 teeth, often unequal. The blooming period lasts about 2 months during the summer and early autumn.
[Weedy Wildflowers of Illinois: Everlasting pea]
/ref>
Seeds
The flowers are followed by hairless flattened seedpods, about long and wide, with several seeds inside. The seedpod, which is initially green, gradually turns brown, splitting open into curled segments, flinging out the seeds
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosperm pl ...
. The seeds are dark and oblong to reniform
Reniform is an adjective meaning "kidney-shaped" and may specifically refer to:
* Reniform leaf
The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single ...
in shape.
Reproduction
''Lathyrus latifolius'' can reproduce vegetatively
Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or spec ...
from its taproot and rhizomes, or by reseeding.
Cultivation and habits
''Lathyrus latifolius'' 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 wide ...
herbaceous
Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials.
Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous"
The fourth edition of t ...
vine
A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...
(climber), which can reach 6 feet or more by means of twining tendril
In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf or petiole with a threadlike shape used by climbing plants for support and attachment, as well as cellular invasion by parasitic plants such as ''Cuscuta''. There are many plants that have tendr ...
s, but in open areas sprawls. It is frost-hardy, long-lived, and slowly spreading. The foliage becomes rather ragged and yellowish by the end of summer.[C. Brickell, Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, 1996, Royal Horticultural Society, London, .]
It requires partial to full sun, and loam
Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–sil ...
or clay-loam soil that is moist, mesic, or slightly dry. Unlike the related annual sweet pea
The sweet pea, ''Lathyrus odoratus'', is a flowering plant in the genus ''Lathyrus'' in the family Fabaceae ( legumes), native to Sicily, southern Italy and the Aegean Islands.
It is an annual climbing plant, growing to a height of , where sui ...
, ''Lathyrus odoratus'', with which it may be confused, it has no scent. While grown as a garden plant it may be pervasive and difficult to remove. Because of this, this species is often considered to be a weed despite its attractive appearance.
Numerous cultivars
A cultivar is a type of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and when Plant propagation, propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and st ...
have been selected as garden subjects, of which the following have gained the Royal Horticultural Society
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity.
The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...
's Award of Garden Merit
The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions.
History
The Award of Garden Merit ...
:
Relations to insect life
Bumblebees
A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related gener ...
pollinate the flowers. Butterflies
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...
visit the flowers for their nectar
Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...
, but do not pollinate. '' Epicauta fabricii'' (Fabricius blister beetle
Blister beetles are beetles of the family Meloidae, so called for their defensive secretion of a blistering agent, cantharidin. About 7,500 species are known worldwide. Many are conspicuous and some are aposematically colored, announcing their ...
), the caterpillars of ''Apantesis phyllira
''Apantesis phyllira'', the phyllira tiger moth, is a moth of the family Erebidae. It was described by Dru Drury in 1773. It is found in North America from Quebec and New England south to Florida and west to Texas, Colorado and Alberta. The habita ...
'' (Oithona tiger moth
The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary trainer aircraft. ...
) and some herbivores feed on the leaves. However, the seeds are poisonous.[
]
References
External links
*
Jepson Manual Treatment
USDA Plants Profile
*
Photo gallery
{{Taxonbar, from=Q158325
latifolius
Flora of Europe
Flora of Serbia
Perennial plants
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus