Wikimedia Commons
Fabaceae
Beach Pea Flower
Lathyrus japonicus
Global connection and adventure.
- Family
- Fabaceae
- Genus
- Lathyrus
- Native to
- Northern Hemisphere coastlines
- Bloom season
- Summer
- Type
- perennial
- Height
- 1-3 ft
- Sunlight
- full sun
- Soil
- sandy, well-drained
- Water
- low
- Hardiness
- 3-8
- Lifespan
- perennial
Did you know
- Beach pea seeds can float in seawater for up to five years and still germinate, explaining its worldwide coastal distribution.
- It was an important famine food; during a severe famine in 1555, the people of Suffolk, England survived largely on beach peas.
- As a legume, it enriches beach sand by fixing atmospheric nitrogen through its root nodule bacteria.
- The species is found on beaches across the entire Northern Hemisphere, from Japan to Alaska to Scandinavia.
- The peas are edible when young but become toxic if consumed in large quantities when mature due to a neurotoxin called ODAP.
Color meanings
0
adventure
1
endurance