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Lathyrus cicera
Also called Red Vetchling, Chickling Vetch, Flat Pod Peavine, Vetchling, Dwarf Chickling
Red pea (Lathyrus cicera) is a hairless annual scrambling wild pea from Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, with single red pea flowers and flat pods. It is grown as a wild or minor food crop and is easy to sow from seed in open, sunny ground.
Lathyrus cicera is a species of wild pea known by the common names red pea, red vetchling and flatpod peavine. It is native to Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, and it is known from other places as an introduced species. This is a hairless annual herb producing a slightly winged stem. The leaves are each made up of two leaflike linear leaflets 3 to 6 centimeters (1.2 to 2.4 in) long. They also bear branched, curling tendrils. The inflorescence holds a single pea flower 1 to 1.5 centimeters (0.39 to 0.59 in) wide which is a varying shade of red. The fruit is a hairless dehiscent legume pod.
This is one pea species known to cause lathyrism; nevertheless, as cicerchia it figured among the comestibles enjoyed by the fortunate Milanese, listed at length by Bonvesin de la Riva in his "Marvels of Milan" (1288).
Angled pea · Yellow pea · Golden Pea · Lathyrus fulvus · Everlasting-Pea · Caley pea · Beach pea · Perennial pea · Sweet pea · Round-leaved vetchling · White pea · Grass pea
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lathyrus cicera by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
