Lathyrus polyphyllus
Leafy pea
Family: Fabaceae · Type: perennial · Native
Leafy pea is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges and northern Coast Ranges in forest habitats at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from April to August, this plant produces distinctive purple flowers 16 to 20 millimeters long in clusters of 6 to 12 blooms. Growing with robust, angled stems that can be quite tall, it develops a distinctive branched climbing structure with a coiled tendril. Its leaves feature large, widely ovate stipules over 1 centimeter wide and 10 to 16 elliptic to ovate leaflets 3 to 6 centimeters long, arranged in a subopposite to alternate pattern. The plant produces glabrous fruits, creating a clean, elegant profile in its forest woodland environment.
Habitat: Forest
Bloom period: Apr-Aug
Elevation: < 1500 m
Bioregions: KR, n&c NCoR
California counties: Humboldt, Siskiyou, Trinity, San Mateo, Del Norte, Mendocino, Tuolumne, Lake, Alameda, Marin, Tehama, Sonoma, Santa Barbara
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.