In cultivated fields and waste places farther south and westward to the Pacific Coast roams the COMMON or PEBBLE VETCH OR TARE (V.
saliva), another domesticated weed that has come to us from Europe, where it is extensively grown for fodder.Let no reproach fall on these innocent plants that bear an opprobrious name: the tare of Scripture is altogether different, the bearded darnel of Mediterranean regions, whose leaves deceive one by simulating those of wheat, and whose smaller seeds, instead of nourishing man, poison him.Only one or two light blue-purple flowers grow in the axils of the leaves of our common vetch.The leaf, compounded of from eight to fourteen leaflets, indented at the top, has a long terminal tendril, whose little sharp tip assists the awkward vine, like a grappling hook.
The AMERICAN VETCH or TARE or PEA VINE (V.Americana) boasts slightly larger bluish-purple flowers than the blue vetch, but fewer of them; from three to nine only forming its loose raceme.
In moist soil throughout a very broad northerly and westerly range it climbs and trails its graceful way, with the help of the tendrils on the tips of leaves compounded of from eight to fourteen oblong, blunt, and veiny leaflets.
BEACH, SEA, SEASIDE, or EVERLASTING PEA
(Lathyrus maritimus) Pea family Flowers - Purple, butterfly-shaped, consisting of standard petal, wings, and keel; 1 in.long or less, clustered in short raceme at end of slender footstalk from leaf axils; calyx 5-toothed;stamens 10 (9 and 1); style curved, flattened, bearded on inner side.Stem: to 2 ft.long, stout, reclining, spreading, leafy.
Leaves: Compounded of 3 to 6 pairs of oblong leaflets somewhat larger than halberd-shaped stipules at base of leaf; branched tendrils at end of it.Fruit: A flat, 2-valved, veiny pod, continuous between the seeds.
Preferred Habitat - Beaches of Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, also of Great Lakes.
Flowering Season - May-August.Sometimes blooming again in autumn.
Distribution - New Jersey to Arctic Circle; also Northern Europe and Asia.
Sturdy clumps of the beach pea, growing beyond reach of the tide in the dunes and sandy wastelands back of the beach, afford the bee the last restaurant where he may regale himself without fear of drowning.From some members of the pea family, as from the wild lupine, for example, his weight, as he moves about, actually pumps the pollen that has fallen into the forward part of the blossom's keel onto his body, that he may transfer it to another flower.In some other members his weight so depresses the keel that the stamens are forced out to dust him over, the flower resuming its original position to protect its nectar and the remaining pollen just as soon as the pressure is removed.Other peas, again, burst at his pressure, and discharge their pollen on him.Now, in the beach pea, and similarly in the vetches, the style is hairy on its inner side, to brush out the pollen on the visitor who sets the automatic sweeper in motion as he alights and moves about.So perfectly have many members of this interesting family adapted their structure to the requirements of insects, and so implicitly do they rely on their automatic mechanism, that they have actually lost the power to fertilize themselves.
In moist or wet ground throughout a northern range from ocean to ocean, the MARSH VETCHLING (Lathyrus palustris) bears its purple, butterfly-shaped flowers, that are the merest trifle over half the size of those of the beach pea.From two to six of these little blossoms are alternately set along the end of the stalk.
The leaflets, which are narrowly oblong, and acute at the apex, stand up opposite each other in pairs (from two to four) along the main leafstalk, that splits at the end to form hooked tendrils.
BUTTERFLY or BLUE PEA
(Clitoria Mariana) Pea family Flowers - Bright lavender blue, showy, about 2 in.long; from 1to 3 borne on a short peduncle.Calyx tubular, 5-toothed; corolla butterfly-shaped, consisting of very large, erect standard petal, notched at rounded apex; 2 oblong, curved wings, and shorter, acute keel; 10 stamens; style incurved, and hairy along inner side.Stem: Smooth, ascending or partly twining, 1 to 3 ft.high.
Leaves: Compounded of 3 oblong leaflets, paler beneath, each on short stalk.Fruit: A few-seeded, acutely pointed pod about 1 in.
long.
Preferred Habitat - Dry soil.
Flowering Season - June-July.
Distribution - New Jersey to Florida, westward to Missouri, Texas, and Mexico.
A beautiful blossom, flaunting a large banner out of all proportion to the size of its other parts, that it may arrest the attention of its benefactors the bees.According to Henderson, the plant, which is found in our Southern States and over the Mexican border, grows also in the Khasia Mountains of India, but in no intervening place.Several members of the tropic-loving genus, that produce large, highly colored flowers, have been introduced to American hothouses; but the blue butterfly pea is our only native representative.The genus is thought to take its name from kleio, to shut up, in reference to the habit these peas have of seeding long before the flower drops off.
WILD or HOG PEANUT
(Falcata comosa; Amphicarpaea monoica of Gray) Pea family Flowers - Numerous small, showy ones, borne in drooping clusters from axils of upper leaves; lilac, pale purplish, or rarely white, butterfly-shaped, consisting of standard petal partly enfolding wings and keel.Calyx tubular, 4 or 5 toothed; 10stamens (9 and 1); 1 pistil.(Also solitary fertile flowers, lacking petals, on thread-like, creeping branches from lower axils or underground).Stem: Twining wiry brownish-hairy, to 8ft.long.Leaves: Compounded of 3 thin leaflets, egg-shaped at base, acutely pointed at tip.Fruit: Hairy pod 1 in.long.Also 1-seeded, pale, rounded, underground peanut.
Preferred Habitat - Moist thickets, shady roadsides.
Flowering Season - August-September.