Plant Families: More Peas!

In review: I could spend weeks and weeks and weeks writing about the Pea Family (Fabaceae); the Pea Family is enormous, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 17,000 species spread over about 640 genera; the flowers come in three distinct types; with these three types of flowers as the defining characteristic, some botanists have broken the Fabaceae Family into three families: Fabaceae, Mimosaceae, and Caesalpiniaceae. And, as wildflowers go, which are, in some cases considered weeds, there are many species we know, even if we don't know they are members of the Pea Family.

Perhaps the most obvious example of peas underfoot - literally - and we don't realize they're peas, are the clovers of the Trifolium genus. It is a big genus with lots of members, many of which have been gassed out of suburban lawns with chemicals, but it's also a big genus full of members we all recognize. The generic Trifolium refers to the trio of leaflets most, but not all species have. Some have more.

Species from the genus include Hop Clover (T. agrarium), Rabbit-foot Clover (T. arvense), Red Clover (T. pratense), and White Clover (T. repens.). White Sweet Clover (Melilotus alba) and Yellow Sweet Clover (M. officinalis) belong to a whole 'nother genus, as do White Prairie Clover (Dalea candida) and Purple Prairie Clover (D. purpurea).

Astragalus and (Oxytropis are two genera that have poisonous species. These poisonous species are known as locoweeds. A few examples of these are Woolly Locoweed (A. mollissimus), Purple Locoweed (O. lambertii), White Locoweed (O. sericea), and Showy Locoweed (O. splendens.). Species such as Field Milkvetch (A. agrestis), Crescent Milkvetch (A. amphioxys), Canada Milkvetch (A. canadensis), Crimson Wooly Pod (A. coccineus), Bent Milkvetch (A. inflexus), and Freckled Milkvetch (A. lentiginosus) are some of the less offensive members of the Astragalus genus.

And then there are the often showy species of the Lathyrus genus. Beach Pea (L. japonicus) is found on both coasts and around the Great Lakes; it has large flowers with a dark purple banner and white wings and keel. Silky Beach Pea (L. littoralis) of the Pacific Northwest coastal region has pink to reddish-purple flowers while Southern California Pea (L. laetiflorus) has pink lines streaking its very pale pink banner.

Other species in the genus include Sierra Nevada Pea (L. nevadensis), Brush Pea (L. pauciflorus), Oregon Pea (L. polyphyllus), Torrey's Pea (L. torreyi), and Pride of California (L. splendens).

All of these species are just the tip of the iceberg, both in their respective genus, and the whole clan. We'll peek at the rest of the iceberg in a couple weeks.

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