#beach pea

[flowerishness]

Lathyrus japonicus (beach pea)

Ah, perfection! The Pacific Ocean on a sunny day, windsurfers doing their thing and Lathyrus japonicus blooming all over the place. I guess they don't call this plant 'beach pea' for nothing.

[suttoncreek314stuff]

Beach Pea

[los-plantalones]

beach peas starting to flower!

[wiley-treehouse-gardens]

Treehouse Gardens

[wandering-in-the-mist]

Spring’s hit the beach too, it would seem

[ilur]

During the winter, a nice light pulling boat is the perfect foil to a heavier sail and oar boat such as the Ilur. While An Suire chills on its trailer, my peapod allows me to scratch the boating itch. In winter, there is either too much wind or to little for sailing. The days are too short for voyaging, and the nights to long and cold for sleeping on the boat. 

Since Ophelia blew through, high pressure has dominated. I have even had the peapod on the running mooring for the last three weeks. It has been cool and dry. I have only had to bail the pod once. 

Here is some footage from todays row.

[beach-pea-ireland]

Peapod on the running mooring.

[flowerishness]

Lathyrus japonicus subsp. maritimus (Beach pea) and Bombus vosnesenski (Yellow faced bumble bee)

When beach peas grow in sand they sprawl in long runners but if they find a fence or a friendly shrub they act like every other member of the pea family, and start climbing. Our local Nootka rose has almost finished flowering but now they’re often covered in pea blossoms. Beach peas are native to all temperate coastal ecosystems in the northern hemisphere and Argentina too. As I’ve mentioned before, their seeds can survive for five years floating in sea water until opportunity knocks and they wash up on some distant shore. Sometimes this species comes with blue and purple flowers but magenta (or occasionally, pale pink) predominates in my area.