Pisum sativum L.
garden pea
Scrambling glabrous, glaucous annual. Tendrils branched; leaflets in 1-3 opposite pairs, ovate to obovate, acute to obtuse, sometimes irregularly and finely serrate, 20-60 mm long; venation pinnate; stipules ovate to elliptic, cordate and toothed at base, usually larger than leaflets, 30-70 mm long. Infl. usually < lvs, 1-3-flowered. Calyx somewhat gibbous at base; calyx teeth ± equal, ovate-triangular, > tube; 2 upper teeth somewhat broader than 3 lower. Corolla white to purplish, 15-25 mm long. Pod brown, 2-10-seeded, c. 40-60 mm long; seeds globose, smooth or rugose; hilum 1/20-1/14 of circumference.
N.: Palmerston North, Levin, Upper Hutt; S.: Canterbury, Otago.
S. Europe to temperate Asia, N. Africa 1958
A casual of waste places, riverbeds, and coastal sites.
FL Oct-Apr.
The garden pea has been cultivated since prehistoric times as a fodder crop and for the edible seeds. It occurs in the wild in N.Z. only as an occasional escape from cultivation.
