Butterfly Pea

(Clitoria mariana)

 

   

 

Color Photograph: Susan Ladd Miller, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Butterfly Pea (Clitoria mariana L.)

Identification: Plant low, climbing on other plants by tendrils. Flowers lavender to pale blue, top two petals fused into a single huge (2 inches), round standard. Flowers arising singly on long flower stalks from the leaf axils. Stem smooth. Tendrils present, arising from the flower stalk, not the leaves. Leaves divided into 3 elongate, ovate leaflets.

Distribution: Iowa in the west to New York in the east, southward to Florida and Texas.

Habitat: Butterfly Pea is found on dry soils, particularly in open woods.

Flowering period: June to August.

Similar Species: The huge flowers and upper standard, and the tendrils arising from the flower stems are distinctive features of Butterfly Pea.

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