The butterfly pea - not a butterfly attractor, but it is truly blue!

If you appreciate the color of a deep blue flower, look no further than that of the butterfly pea. This easy-to-grow vine can make a great trellis or post covering with the deepest blue flowers you may have ever seen. 

A native to Asia, the butterfly pea now grows across the world as a popular ornamental vine with the ability, like other legumes, to fix nitrogen in the soil with the help of certain bacteria. With delicate pea-like flowers of deep blue with a yellow throat, (there is also a white cultivar), the butterfly pea even comes in varieties featuring both single and double-flowers. Considered a short-lived perennial which can freeze back in the winter, the abundant seeds produced will often sprout and reseed.  Fine for sun or part-shade, this twining vine will seek out and wrap itself around a variety of supports. Also consider growing this flowering pea in hanging baskets where the vines will cascade over the side providing a fine plant for the summer. 

Although it may freeze-back in the winter and/or just simply conk out, the butterfly pea is easy to grow from seed or even from cuttings. A butterfly pea can go from seed to flower in as little as six weeks. Soaking the seeds in water for a few hours prior to planting will help germination. I have one growing up an established bougainvillea trained up a small trellis. The butterfly pea provides color now while the bougainvillea has just green leaves.

Unless a friend provides a few seeds for you to start, the butterfly pea is readily available in seed catalogs or, easily found via an Internet search. I especially like the double-flowering varieties which have extravagant petals and supersized flowers. While the butterfly pea does not really attract butterflies, (it just looks like a butterfly to some), I have found it a welcome source of unique color on a manageable vine. For more information on all types of vining plants suitable for our area, please call our Master Gardener volunteers on the Plant Lifeline on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 1 to 4 pm at 764-4340 for gardening help and insight into their role as an Extension volunteer. Don't forget to visit our other County Plant Clinics in the area. Please check this link for a complete list of site locations, dates and times - http://charlotte.ifas.ufl.edu/horticulture/Plant%20Clinics%20Schedule.pdf.

Resources:

Lemke, C. (2012) Cal's Plant of the Week Clitoria ternatea - Butterfly Pea.  University of Oklahoma Department of Microbiology & Plant Biology.

Park Brown S. & Knox, G. W. (2016) Flowering Vines for Florida.  The University of Florida Extension Service, IFAS.

Clitoria ternatea (2016) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clitoria_ternatea.