Pea Family (Fabaceae)
Click a link below to find out more about each plant in the Pea Family:
|
How can I recognize a member of the pea family?
Look at their distinctive flower petals and fruits. Count the flower petals. There should be five. However, they are not all the same shape or size, and two petals are fused together. The fruits look like beans. At Nachusa we call the members of this family “legumes.” Most legume seeds split open along two seams — think of how peas and green beans open. |
Cool stuff to know about legumes
Legumes have a symbiotic relationship with bacteria. The bacteria that live on their roots change nitrogen into food the plant can “eat.” In return, the legumes provide the bacteria with energy in the form of carbohydrates. When the plant dies, the bacteria release the nitrogen into the soil to create food for nearby plants. |
Illinois ticktrefoilDesmodium illinoense
Hitchhiking allowed! This plant parent is happy for its kids (seeds) to hitch a ride with you! Humans and other mammals actually help the plant disperse its seeds. How? The seeds have tiny, hooked hairs that grab your clothes, your hair, or anything else they can attach to. No worries though, for the seeds easily peel off. Tastes good At Nachusa, wild turkeys, deer, wood chucks, rabbits, and white-footed mice may eat the leaves. Skippers, the Eastern tailed blue, and the gray hairstreak butterfly larva may also feed on this plant. Scientific name origin In Greek, desmos means to band, bind or chain. So, Desmodium refers to the ticktrefoil’s seed pod, formed from segments joined together. purple prairie cloverDalea purpurea
Friar Tuck? The purple flowers begin blooming at the bottom and move to the top, circling the thimble-shaped flowerhead. Does this remind you of Friar Tuck? He was balding on the top with a circle of hair around his head. Pollinator buffet This native clover synchronizes the availability of its pollen to the first thing in the morning, when many bees flock to the flowers for pollen and nectar. Sixty-four bee species have been observed on purple prairie clover. Wow, however, this is still only 16% of the region’s bee species. Scientific name origin This genus of native clover is named in honor of an English doctor and botanist, Samuel Dale, who lived to an impressive 80 years for the times, from 1659 to 1739. In Latin purpurea refers to the purple-red color. 
round-headed bush cloverLespedeza capitata
Wrong Name! Have you ever had your name misspelled? Lespedeza capitata was named for Vicente Manuel de Céspedes, the governor of the Spanish province of East Florida in the late 18th century, but the first time the plant's name was printed, it was misspelled as “de Lespedeza” and it stuck! Protein-rich At Nachusa, deer, rabbits, and muskrats enjoy eating this protein-rich plant. The seeds are especially tasty to mourning doves, bobwhites, wild turkeys, and juncos. Both long and short-tongued bees enjoy the nectar of the flowers and caterpillars of certain skipper butterflies like cloudywings, hoary edge, and silver-spotted eat the leaves. Scientific name origin In Latin, capitata means growing in a head. So, capitata refers to the plant's round cluster of white flowers with pink-red centers, that looks like a head. |
white prairie cloverDalea candida
Food for all This plant is high in protein, so it is very popular with mammals like deer and rabbits. The flowers contain pollen and nectar so they draw in many pollinators. Ascending blooms The flowers begin blooming in a ring around the bottom of the flowerhead. Over a few weeks, the ring of blooms continue to move upward until the entire flowerhead has bloomed. Scientific name origin This genus of native clover is named in honor of an English doctor and botanist, Samuel Dale, who lived to an impressive 80 years for the times, from 1659 to 1739. Candida means white in Latin. white wild indigoBaptisia lactea
Let's remove this food from our menu! This large, impressive legume is toxic to cows and other mammals, who avoid eating it. However, several weevils (beetles) can eat the leaves and flowers as adults and their larvae live in the pods and eat the seeds, so much so, that in some years we have hardly any seed to collect. Scientific name origin Baptisia is a word from the Greek, bapto, which means to cover wholly with a fluid, to dip as with dye. And lacteal is from the Latin for milky. |