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Plant Families: And Still More Peas

© Gregg Pasterick

My last two Plant Families articles have been about the Pea Family (Fabaceae). I have written that 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. I gave you the proverbial tip of the iceberg, dwelling briefly on the Trifolium, Astragalus, Oxytropis, Melilotus, Dalea, and Lathyrus genera; listing some species in each. I could go on and on; this is one of my favorite plant families. But I won't. I'll wrap it up this week...

Another rather common genus, particularly further west is the Lotus genus. These seem to usually have yellow flowers. Bird's-foot Trefoil (L. corniculatus) is the species throughout the east, but is also widespread in the Pacific Northwest into the Great Basin. Other species include Silverleaf Lotus (L. argophyllus), Bicolored Lotus (L. formosissimus), Grand Lotus (L. grandiflorus), Hill Lotus (L. humistratus), Miniature Lotus (L. micranthus), Torrey's Lotus (L. oblongifolius), Deer Weed (L. scoparius), Desert Lotus (L. tomentellus), and Wright's Deer Vetch (L. wrightii).

Some interesting species in no particular genus include Round-head Bush Clover (Lespedeza capitata), which prefers prairies and similar habitats. I like this one, which I found in a northern Indiana prairie remnant, because of the dense clusters of both leaves and mostly creamy-white flowers. Goat's Rue (Tephrosia virginiana), which I found in that same prairie remnant, has large pink and yellow flowers; the banner is yellow and the wings are pink.

Partridge-pea (Cassia fasciulata), which I found in a southern Ohio prairie remnant, is one of those peas that sometimes gets put in the Mimosa Family (Mimosaceae) because of its flowers that do not have the usual banner, wings, and keel arrangement, but are radially symmetrical with conspicuous stamens.

Gorse (Ulex europaeus), one of many garden escapees on this continent, is a dense, spiny, evergreen bush. Only its flowers give it away as being a pea.

Spurred Butterfly Pea (Centrosema virginianum) is noteworthy not just for its large, violet-pink flowers, but also because its flower blossom upside-down; the banner is at the bottom pointing downward and the keel, above, points upward.

Then there are Golden Banner (Thermopsis montana) and California False Lupine (T. macrophylla). Both have big, yellow flowers that fool you into thinking they are lupines, and then you notice the leaves, in which the leaflets are not in the usual lupine configuration.