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canyon pea, common Pacific pea, Pacific pea, Pacific peavine, Pacific vetchling, wild sweetpea

Photo is of parent taxon

hillside pea, Pacific pea

Habit Herbs perennial, from rhizome, glabrous or sparsely to densely pubescent.
Stems

angled to narrowly winged, sprawling or climbing, basally branched 0–4 times, 2–20 dm.

Leaves

4–14 cm;

tendrils well developed;

stipules lanceolate to linear, 5–25 × 1–10 mm, much smaller than leaflets (more than 1/4 width of distal leaflets);

leaflets 6–12, scattered, blades ovate to linear, 12–50 × 5–25 mm, surfaces glabrous or pubescent.

Leaflets

blade surfaces often sparsely to densely pubescent throughout, sometimes pubescent abaxially, glabrous adaxially.

Inflorescences

5–20-flowered, 5–25 cm.

Flowers

12–25 mm;

calyx lobes unequal, lateral lobes deltate, linear-triangular, or lanceolate and wider distal to base, shorter to longer than tube;

corolla cream-white, rose, lavender, blue-purple, or deep wine red, banner erect or reflexed toward calyx tube, blade equal to or longer than claw, wings equal to keel;

ovary glabrous or pubescent.

14–17 mm;

lateral calyx lobes lanceolate or linear-triangular and equal to tube, or deltate and shorter than tube;

corolla rose, lavender, or blue-purple, banner erect, blade equal to or somewhat longer than claw.

Legumes

40–60 × 4–7 mm.

2n

= 14.

Lathyrus vestitus

Lathyrus vestitus var. vestitus

Phenology Flowering Apr–May.
Habitat Roadside fencerows, grasslands, oak or conifer woodlands along creeks, chaparral.
Elevation 0–2000 m. (0–6600 ft.)
Distribution
from USDA
w United States; nw Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; OR; Mexico (Baja California)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 3 (3 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

As delimited here, var. vestitus includes populations found in habitats from moist coastal coniferous forests to chaparral, from California to southwestern Oregon. Numerous attempts to describe distinctive taxa within this series of populations (R. V. Bradshaw 1925; C. L. Hitchcock 1952; S. L. Broich 1987; D. Isely 1992) have been undermined by extensive intergradation among them.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Flowers 16–25 mm, corollas dark wine red, ban­ners reflexed against calyx tube.
var. alefeldii
1. Flowers 12–17 mm, corollas cream-white, rose, lavender, or blue-purple, banners erect.
→ 2
2. Leaflet blades often sparsely to densely pubes­cent throughout, sometimes pubescent abax­ially, glabrous adaxially; flowers rose, lavender, or blue-purple; California, sw Oregon.
var. vestitus
2. Leaflet blades glabrous; flowers cream-white; Puget Sound area to sw Oregon and nw California.
var. ochropetalus
Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Lathyrus Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Lathyrus > Lathyrus vestitus
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. japonicus, 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 var. alefeldii, L. vestitus var. ochropetalus
Subordinate taxa
L. vestitus var. alefeldii, L. vestitus var. ochropetalus, L. vestitus var. vestitus
Synonyms L. bolanderi, L. laetiflorus, L. laetiflorus subsp. barbarae, L. vestitus subsp. bolanderi, L. vestitus subsp. laetiflorus, L. vestitus subsp. laevicarpus, L. vestitus subsp. puberulus, L. vestitus subsp. violaceus, L. violaceus, L. violaceus var. barbarae
Name authority Nuttall in J. Torrey and A. Gray: Fl. N. Amer. 1: 276. (1838) unknown
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