Nearctica - Eastern Wildflowers - Fabaceae - Pink Wild Bean (Strophostyles umbellata)

Pink Wild Bean

(Strophostyles umbellata)

Color Photograph: Copyright Nearctica.com, Inc.

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

Pink Wild Bean (Strophostyles umbellata [Muhl. ex Willd.] Britt.)

Identification: Plant a vine trailing along the ground or twining about other herbs and shrubs. Flowers large, showy, pink to lavender. Lower petals modified into an elongate, purple, hornlike structure. Flowers on a short pedicel, not sessile with the flower stem. Seedpods straight, 1 to 2 inches long. Flower stalks usually longer than the length of the leaves. Leaves with 3 leaflets, each leaflet narrow with a pointed apex and rarely with irregular marginal lobes.

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

Habitat: Pink Wild Bean is found on sandy soil and in thickets and open woods.

Flowering period: July to September.

Similar Species: Pink Wild Bean is very similar to Trailing Wild Bean. Trailing Wild Bean has wider leaflets. The flowers are sessile to the flower stem without a short pedicel. The flower stem of Trailling Wild Bean is usually shorter than length of a leaf.