Butterfly Pea

Clitoria mariana known by the common names butterfly pea or Atlantic pigeon wings, is a perennial forb.

Perennial, twining vine, occasionally erect, with large, showy, lavender-pink, pea-like flowers, usually solitary but occasionally up to 3, in the axils of compound leaves. It blooms June through August and the seeds are found in a pea like pods. The fruit is a linear oblong pod, 25 millimeters long and 5 millimeters wide.

It is found in open woods and thickets with full sun or partial sun and likes sandy, dry soils.

Leaves of the vine, butterfly pea
It is native to Texas but I do pull it from areas around my house because vines can so easily take over.

The seed pod is a typical pea pod.

This genus was named after the human clitoris, for the flowers bear a resemblance to the vulva. Originally the first described species of the genus was given the name Flos clitoridis ternatensibus in 1678 by Rumpf, a German-born botanist employed by the Dutch East India Company. It was regarded as appropriately named by Johann Philipp Breyne in 1747. Many vernacular names of these flowers in different languages are similarly based on references to female external genitalia.

Controversies existed in the past among botanists regarding the good taste of the naming of the genus. The analogy drew sharp criticism from botanists such as James Edward Smith in 1807, Amos Eaton in 1817, Michel Étienne Descourtilz in 1826, and Eaton and Wright in 1840. Some less explicit alternatives, like Vexillaria (Eaton 1817) and Nauchea (Descourtilz 1826), were proposed, but they failed to prosper, and the name Clitoria has survived to this day.

References.                                                            

ITIS, link to Integrated Taxonomy Information System for additional information about clitoria mariana.

BONAP: link to Biota of North America Program for additional information about clitoria mariana

USDA: link to USDA Plants for additional information about Clitoria mariana.

ARS-GRIN: 

LJWC:
FNA: Find Clitoria mariana in the Flora of North America.

IPNI:

wetlands: US Army Corp

NAEB BRIT:  
Google: Search Google for Clitoria mariana

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Grassroots Horticulture

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