Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Aspen Peavine
Lathyrus lanszwertii
Pea family (Fabaceae)

For Lathyrus lanszwertii variety leucanthus


©2008 Paul Slichter
From low to high elevations this is an extremely common pea from Montana south to New Mexico and west to the Cascades and Sierras. Although flowers are usually white, they often have tinges of pink and rust, especially as they fade. Precise classification of this and similar peas is quite difficult. According to "Intermountain Flora": "a settled for the complex series of small-flowered mountain [peas]... will remain unattainable unless differential characters more reliable than those presently known can be found.... The flowers and pods of [these peas are] essentially identical... [but] ..., number and [shape] of , development of tendrils, and size and color of petals are subject to much variation...." The specific epithet, "leucanthus," is derived from Greek: "Leuc," "white" and "anthus," "flower." Louis Lanszwert (1825-1888), was a San Francisco pharmacist.

Description

, sprawling and climbing, 8-24" tall, herbage to hairy, large 1/3 to almost 1" long. Leaves 1 to 6" long, or . 4-12, from 1/3 to 3" long, to , , or oval. Tendrils short and commonly branched and grasping. from 1 to 3+" long. 2-5 flowered, the flowers spreading. Flowers 1/2 to 1" long, white to pink purple or cream and commonly suffused or veined with pink or purple fading to rusts. a pod to 3" long.

Field Marks

Massive spreading deep carpets of plants topped by numerous clusters of usually white flowers.

© Al Schneider

lanceolate -- Lance-shaped. Long, wider in the middle.

oblanceolate -- top wider than bottom

A peduncle is a common stalk of a cluster of flowers.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

taxonomy is the science of naming and classifying organisms such as plants.

pubescent -- downy; covered with short, soft, erect hairs.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

In an opposite leaf arrangement the leaves come in pairs with one leaf on each side of a stem.

stipule -- A leaf-like structure that occurs where the leaf joins the stem; stipules often occur in pairs.

elliptic -- Oval, with no point or a very short point.

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

A raceme is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along its axis.

alternate -- leaves alternate along the main stem and are attached singly.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

leaflets -- Each little leaf-like thing in a compound leaf is a leaflet.