LATHYRUSL. - SWEET PEA
Scientific Description:
Annual or perennial, eglandular; stems winged or wingless, sometimes climbing. Leaves paripinnate or subdigitate, ending in mucro or tendril; leaflets 1−8-paired (frequently 1-paired), entire, with venation ranging from basal and parallel to pinnate and anastomosing. Stipules entire or rarely toothed, without a nectariferous blotch. Flowers in axillary racemes or solitary. Calyx regular to irregular, gibbous or not. Wings free or coherent to keel. Style dorsally compressed, linear to spathulate, pubescent on the upper side (or rarely glabrous), twisted or not. Legume compressed, 2-many-seeded, upper suture 2-winged or wingless. Seeds as in Vicia L.
Reference:
Davis PH (1970). Lathyrus L., In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 3: 328.
Public Description:
Lathyrus is a genus of annual or perennial herbs known as “sweet pea” or “vetchling”, and native to temperate areas in Europe, North America, Asia, tropical East Africa, and temperate South America. There are approximately 159 species in the world and 63 species (73 taxa) in Türkiye. Many species are cultivated as garden plants. The genus includes the garden “sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus L.)” and the perennial “everlasting pea (Lathyrus latifolius L.)”. Flowers on these cultivated species may be rose, red, maroon, pink, white, yellow, purple or blue, and some are bicolored. Some of them are also grown for their fragrance. The seeds of some Lathyrus species contain the toxic amino acid “oxalyldiaminopropionic acid” and if eaten in large quantities can cause “lathyrism”, a neurological disease characterized by paralysis and weakness that occurs in people and in pets.
References:
Anonymous 1 (2017). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lathyrus/, Accessed date: 31.03.2017.
Anonymous 2 (2016). https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/genus/lathyrus//, Accessed date: 09.02.2016.
Anonymous 3 (2016). http://www.theplantlist.org/1.1/browse/A/Leguminosae/Lathyrus///, Accessed date: 09.02.2016.
Güneş F (2012). Lathyrus L., In: Güner, A., Aslan, S., Ekim, T., Vural, M. & Babaç, M.T. (eds.), Türkiye Bitkileri Listesi (Damarlı Bitkiler). Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanik Bahçesi ve Flora Araştırmaları Derneği Yayını. İstanbul, pp. 466−470.
