From Blue to Purple 



corolla butterfly-shaped, consisting of very large, erect stand- 

 ard petal, notched at rounded apex; 2 oblong, curved wings, 

 and shorter, acute keel; lostamens; style incurved, and hairy 

 along inner side. Stem : Smooth, ascending or partly twin- 

 ing, I to 3 ft. high. Leaves : Compounded of 3 oblong leaf- 

 lets, paler beneath, each on short stalk. Fruit: A few- 

 seeded, acutely pointed pod about i in. long. 



Preferred Habitat — Dry soil. 



Flowering Season — ^June — July. 



Distribution — New Jersey to Florida, westward to Missouri, Texas, 

 and Mexico. 



A beautiful blossom, flaunting a large banner out of all propor- 

 tion to the size of its other parts, that it may arrest the attention of 

 its benefactors the bees. According to Henderson, the plant, 

 which is found in our Southern States and over the Mexican border, 

 grows also in the Khasia Mountains of India, but in no intervening 

 place. Several members of the tropic-loving genus, that produce 

 large, highly colored flowers, have been introduced to American 

 hothouses ; but the blue butterfly pea is our only native repre- 

 sentative. The genus is thought to take its name from hleio, to 

 shut up, in reference to the habit these peas have of seeding long 

 before the flower drops off. 



Wild or Hog Peanut 



(Falcata comosa) Pea family 

 {Amphicarpcea monoica of Gray) 



Flowers — Numerous small, showy ones, borne in drooping clusters 

 from axils of upper leaves ; lilac, pale purplish, or rarely white, 

 butterfly-shaped, consisting of standard petal partly enfolding 

 wings and keel. Calyx tubular, 4 or 5 toothed; 10 stamens 

 (9 and i); i pistil. (Also solitary fertile flowers, lacking 

 petals, on thread-like, creeping branches from lower axils or 

 underground). Stem : Twining wiry brownish-hairy, i to 8 

 ft. long. Leaves: Compounded of 3 thin leaflets, egg-shaped 

 at base, acutely pointed at tip. Fruit Hairy pod i in. 

 long. Also I -seeded, pale, rounded, underground peanut. 



Preferred Babitat— Moist thickets, shady roadsides. 



Flowering Season — August — September. 



Distribution — New Brunswick westward to Nebraska, south to 

 Gulf of Me:<ico. 



Amphicarpcea ("seed at both ends"), the Greek name by 

 which this graceful vine was formerly known, emphasizes its most 



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