''Lathyrus littoralis'' is a species of wild pea known by the common name silky beach pea. It is native to the coastline of western North America from

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It is a resident of beaches and dunes. This is a perennial herb which grows a patch of hairy gray-green stems along the sandy ground or slightly upright. The woolly leaves are made up of several oval or oblong scoop-shaped leaflets. There are small, tough

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 the plant does not use them to climb. The plant produces dense

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s of several flowers each one to two centimeters wide. Each flower is bicolored in dark-veined deep pink and white. The fruit is a

dehiscent Dehiscence is the splitting of a mature plant structure along a built-in line of weakness to release its contents. This is common among fruits, anthers and sporangia. Sometimes this involves the complete detachment of a part; structures that op ...

oval-shaped hairy legume pod. It blooms from late spring to early summer. The roots are edible.

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Lathyrus littoralis'' (Beach pea, Silky beach pea) Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Lathyrus littoralis''USDA Plants Profile for ''Lathyrus littoralis''UC CalPhotos gallery: ''Lathyrus littoralis''
* littoralis Endemic flora of California Vines Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{fabeae-stub