Pinecrest Gardens: Butterfly Pea Is A Magical, Healing, Delicious Beauty

From Pinecrest Gardens:

August 7, 2020

Today, I'm introducing you to one of my favorite plants to grow in The Learning and Sensory Garden, Butterfly Pea. Butterfly Pea, Clitoria ternatea, is an easy to grow perennial vine originating from South East Asia, and here's why I love it: Since it's native to South East Asia, our climate is wonderful place to grow this beauty. The most important thing over the summer in South FL is to grow with the seasons, and to think about our climate in terms of success. Hot sticky weather? Moist soils? Broccoli gave up? Time to consider more tropical plants. Butterfly Pea, one of those tropical options, will reward you handsomely, especially over the long summer months. Throughout the year, Butterfly Pea is covered in deep blue oval shaped blooms. New blooms open daily, allowing you to harvest as many as your heart desires. Over the summer, it's even hard to keep up with, so you can expect to be harvesting often once your butterfly pea reaches maturity. After pollination, the plant produces seed pods that look similar to snap peas, which quickly dry out and yield viable seeds. Be careful with this one in your yard because it is prolific! Butterfly Pea is in the bean family (legumes), so it will produce both tendrils for climbing, and seed pods. If you plan to plant Butterfly pea at your house, you will need a trellis or fence for it to climb. So, it's beautiful, easy to grow...what else?! It's a Pollinator Pal: Butterfly Pea is a magical plant. Aside from it's tenacity in the FL climate and gorgeous deep blue flowers, Butterfly Pea is a pollinator friendly plant! It's a host plant for the Long Tailed Skipper butterfly (Urbanus proteas), and is a nectar source for many other members of the butterfly family. The deeply colored flowers, with the white and yellow centers tell pollinators exactly where to get the nectar, working just like a bullseye. The shape of the petals is welcoming as a landing pad, giving our flying friends enough space to take a break upon. Watch this skipper butterfly in the learning garden sipping nectar from butterfly pea:

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This press release was produced by the Pinecrest Gardens. The views expressed are the author's own.