Lathyrus littoralis

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 to California. It is a resident of beaches and dunes.

Lathyrus littoralis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Plantae
(unranked):
Angiosperms
(unranked):
Eudicots
(unranked):
Rosids
Order:
Fabales
Family:
Fabaceae
Subfamily:
Faboideae
Genus:
Lathyrus
Species:
L. littoralis
Binomial name
Lathyrus littoralis

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 tendrils but the plant does not use them to climb. The plant produces dense inflorescences 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 oval-shaped hairy legume pod.

The roots are edible.[1]

References
  1. Fagan, Damian (2019). Wildflowers of Oregon: A Field Guide to Over 400 Wildflowers, Trees, and Shrubs of the Coast, Cascades, and High Desert. Guilford, CT: FalconGuides. p. 165. ISBN 1-4930-3633-5. OCLC 1073035766.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.