Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Perennial sweetpea

PERENNIAL SWEETPEA

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Lathyrus latifolius L.

Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: Trailing or climbing vine to 7 feet

Family: Fabaceae - Bean Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August

Also Called:

Everlasting pea, perennial pea.

Stems:

Vine, trailing or climbing via tendrils, 3 to 7 feet long, glabrous, waxy, conspicuously 2-winged; wings 1/5 to 2/5 inch wide.

Leaves:

Alternate, pinnate, rachis extending into forked tendril; leaflets 2, lanceolate to elliptic or oblong, 1.6 to 6 inches long, .5 to 1.2 inches wide, glabrous; stipules lanceolate to ovate, 1/2 to 3 inches long, 1/6 to 2/5 inch wide; stalks broadly 2-winged

Inflorescences:

Raceme, 5- to 15-flowered, on stalk 4 to 8 inches long.

Flowers:

Showy, odorless; stalk 1/2 to 1 inch long; calyx bell-shaped, 1/6 to 1/4 inch long; lobes 5, unequal; corolla papilionaceous, 1/2 to 1 inch long, pinkish-purple, rose or white, sometimes stripped; banner nearly as wide as long; stamens 10, 9 united, 1 free.

Fruits:

Pods, linear, 2.5 to 4 inches long, 1/4 to 2/5 inch wide, flattened, glabrous, 10-15 seeded; seeds oblong, 1/5 inch long, dark brown, surface rough.

Habitat:

Fence rows, roadsides, waste places; frequently near farms or homes.

Distribution:

East 2/3 of Kansas.

Origin:

Introduced from Europe as a graden plant and escaped from cultivation.

Toxicity:

Seeds are poisonous.

Comments:

Very hardy. Will form a dense mat 18 to 30 inches thick when there is nothing for it to climb on. May become weedy or invasive in some habitats.