Flora of North America species comparison

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Lathyrus japonicus

beach or maritime or sand pea, beach pea, beach vetchling, maritime pea, sea pea, seaside pea
Habit Herbs perennial, from rhizome, glabrous or sparsely pubescent.
Stems

angled to narrowly winged, erect, sprawling, or climbing, basally branched 0–4 times, 1–10 dm.
Leaves

3–15 cm;

tendrils usually well developed, branched or unbranched;

stipules sagittate-ovate, 7–35 × 7–30 mm, as large as basal leaflets;

leaflets 6–12, usually scattered, blades ovate to lanceolate, 15–55 × 5–35 mm, surfaces glabrous throughout or pubescent abaxially.
Inflorescences

4–9-flowered, 4–15 cm.
Flowers

12–29 mm;

calyx lobes unequal, lateral lobes linear-triangular, longer than tube;

corolla blue to purple, banner erect, blade longer than claw, wings equal to keel;

ovary eglandular and glandular-pubescent.
Legumes

35–65 × 6–12 mm.

Lathyrus japonicus
Distribution
from USDA
North America; Eurasia [Introduced in s South America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 3 (3 in the flora).

Within Lathyrus japonicus, in the narrow sense, there is a south to north reduction in plant size, including plant height, robustness, and leaflet size, but not flower size, flower number, or fruit size. On the east coast of North America this shift seems fairly abrupt, giving the appearance of a clear distinction between var. maritimus and var. pellitus in the south, and var. japonicus to the north in Labrador and Greenland. However, on the West Coast, there are few truly pubescent forms (var. pellitus), and there seem to be many more intermediates between var. maritimus in the south and var. japonicus to the north.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Stems 1–3.5 dm; leaflet blades 15–35 mm; tendrils unbranched, less than 3 cm.
var. japonicus
1. Stems 3–10 dm; leaflet blades 30–50(–55) mm; tendrils branched, 3+ cm.
→ 2
2. Leaflet blades glabrous.
var. maritimus
2. Leaflet blades pubescent abaxially (especially new growth).
var. pellitus
Source FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Lathyrus
Sibling taxa
L. angulatus, L. aphaca, L. biflorus, L. brachycalyx, L. brownii, L. cicera, L. decaphyllus, L. delnorticus, L. eucosmus, L. glandulosus, L. graminifolius, L. grimesii, L. hirsutus, L. hitchcockianus, L. holochlorus, L. jepsonii, L. laetivirens, L. lanszwertii, L. latifolius, L. littoralis, L. nevadensis, L. nissolia, L. ochroleucus, L. odoratus, L. palustris, L. pauciflorus, L. polyphyllus, L. pratensis, L. pusillus, L. rigidus, L. sphaericus, L. splendens, L. sulphureus, L. sylvestris, L. tingitanus, L. torreyi, L. tracyi, L. tuberosus, L. venosus, L. vestitus
Subordinate taxa
L. japonicus var. japonicus, L. japonicus var. maritimus, L. japonicus var. pellitus
Name authority Willdenow: Sp. Pl. 3: 1092. (1802)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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