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Deciduous List |
Pea Family [Fabaceae] |
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2nd July 2011, Hall Rd, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
An aggressive weed of waste ground and railway embankments, especially prevalent around London. |
2nd July 2011, Hall Rd, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
It is a far-reaching scrambling perennial up to 3m in length, but not usually in height unless it has something that tall in the immediate vicinity up which to climb. The books say it is bright magenta-pink, but clearly pink and pure white are also within its repertoire. |
2nd July 2011, Hall Rd, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
8th July 2009, Ainsdale Dunes, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Here with pink and magenta flowers. The leaves are broad and have a smaller length/breadth (<4:1) ratio than those of Narrow-Leaved Everlasting-Pea (>4:1). |
28th June 2011, Ainsdale Dunes, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Here in totally white flowers. The stems are zig-zagged at every branch and have two wide flanges (usually called 'wings' although there is a possibility of confusion with the wings of pea-type flowers) terminated by branched tendrils. |
28th June 2011, Ainsdale Dunes, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Each flower on an upward slightly drooping stalk. |
2nd July 2011, Hall Rd, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
At 15-30mm the flowers slightly larger than those of Narrow-Leaved Everlasting-Pea at 12-20mm, and there are between 3 and 12 flowers in a head as opposed to a slightly lower 3-8 in Narrow-Leaved Everlasting-Pea. |
2nd July 2011, Hall Rd, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Un-opened flower buds bear a passing resemblance to those of Foxglove. |
2nd July 2011, Hall Rd, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Flowers have the usual pea-type structure with large banner, two wings and two keels (which are hidden within the wings). |
27th July 2011, Hall Rd, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Here bright magenta flowers. |
2nd July 2011, Hall Rd, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
2nd July 2011, Hall Rd, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Feint darker veins are visible in the banner. |
8th July 2009, Ainsdale Dunes, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The sepal is brownish, hemispheric, with five green triangular teeth. |
8th July 2009, Ainsdale Dunes, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The flowers on this specimen seem to be as bright a red-magenta colour and as few in number as those expected on Fifield Peaaka Tuberous Pea(Lathyrus tuberosus) but it cannot be that because Fifield Pea has wingless stems. Perhaps this is an escaped cultivar, but then, Broad-leaved Everlasting-Pea is too~ |
8th July 2009, Ainsdale Dunes, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Leaves broad, stems with two flat wings. There are a pair of opposite leaves/bracts at each branch in the winged stem that are concave pointed rather than convex-pointed of the broad leaves. |
8th July 2009, Ainsdale Dunes, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
8th July 2009, Ainsdale Dunes, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Branched tendrils at the end of each branch. |
2nd July 2011, Hall Rd, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Tendrils in opposite pairs terminating with three at the end. |
28th June 2011, Ainsdale Dunes, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The tendrils curl around other stems (here wrenched away so that you can better make them out). |
2nd July 2011, Hall Rd, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
The winged stems. |
28th June 2011, Ainsdale Dunes, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Pointed leaf-like bracts at each branching. |
14th July 2010, Hillside Dunes, Sefton Coast. | Photo: © RWD |
Pods brown and at 5 - 10cm are longer than those of Narrow-Leaved Everlasting-Pea at 4 - 7cm. |
Not to be semantically confused with : Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea) or Mountain Everlasting (Antennaria dioica) [plants with similar names belonging to differing families] Easily mis-identified as : Narrow-Leaved Everlasting-Pea (Lathyrus sylvestris) but that has narrow leaves that are >4 long as wide, slightly smaller flowers and with slightly fewer flowers in a flowering head, and the flowers are dull pinkish-purple rather than bright magenta (other books say they are yellowish-green or greenish-pink with tinges of violet and/or blue). The winged stems automatically exclude about half of the possible Pea-type plants that this flower could be. The second is the number of flowers per stem, which is usually fairly high. The length to width ratio of the leaves which is less than four excludes Narrow-Leaved Everlasting-Pea (Lathyrus sylvestris). It is a naturalised garden escape which likes growing on railway banks, hedges, waste ground and on roadsides, although here it likes covering less-mobile inland sand dunes.
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Lathyrus | latifolius | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Fabaceae |
Lathyrus (Peas) |
Pea Family [Fabaceae] |