Lathyrus hirsutus L.

Singletary Pea; Singletary Vetchling; Caley Pea

Vine

Annual

Vascular

Singletary Pea is an introduced herbaceous cool season annual in the Bean family (Fabaceae). It is native to Europe, North Africa, and Asia. In Alabama, it occurs throughout most of the state except for the southern-most counties. Singletary Pea grows in fields, in pastures, on roadsides, and in vacant lots. It is an annual with a tap root. Stems are sprawling/climbing by way of tendrils. Stems are 1-2 feet in length, green in color, glabrous, and winged. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, once pinnate with two leaflets, and ending in a tendril with 3 or more branches. The leaflets are linear-lanceolate in outline, glabrous, with entire margins. The petioles are winged. Flowers are produced in 1-4 flowered racemes from the leaf axils. The flowers are papilionaceous. The standard petal is blue-purple in color and the wings and keel petals are whitish. The fruit is a legume that is densely short pubescent with bulbous-based hairs.--A. Diamond

**

Not Native

**