Clitoria ternatea L.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Fabaceae

• Scientific Name

  Clitoria ternatea L.

• Description

  Species Description - Commonly grown in flower gardens, this beautiful, slender, nearly herbaceous vine, with showy blue and white flowers, occasionally escapes to roadsides and waste grounds in Porto Rico, as widely elsewhere in tropical and subtropical America; it is a native of the Old World tropics, first described botanically as from India. Papito is another Spanish name; only this species of the genus exists in Porto Rico, but a double-flowered race of it, and one with pure white flowers are occasionally cultivated. The Linnaean genus Clitoria consists of about 7 species, natives of the Old World tropics, the one here illustrated, typical. Numerous American plants, referred to this genus by authors, are now, preferably classified in other genera, such as Martiusia, and Bradburya, each represented by two species indigenous in Porto Rico, and illustrated in this work. The true Clitorias are mostly vines, with once-compound leaves of from 5 to 9 leaflets, persistent stipules, and large, axillary, bracted flowers. The calyx is tubular and 5-toothed, with the 2 upper teeth more or less united; the large standard-petal is notched; the wings oblong and curved, the pointed keel shorter than the wings; the stamens are more or less united by their filaments, the anthers all alike; the ovary is short-stalked and contains many ovules; the long, slender, incurved style is hairy along the inner side. The long, narrow, flat pod splits lengthwise into 2, smoothe valves, releasing the numerous seeds. Clitoria ternatea (Ternate is one of the Molucca Islands) may reach a length of 5 meters or more, twining, or prostrate, the young growth hairy. The slender-stalked leaves usually have 5 leaflets, sometimes 7, or 9, which are oval or ovate, thin, mostly blunt, smooth on the upper side, somewhat hairy beneath. The flowers are solitary in the leaf-axils, on stalks from 1 to 2 centimeters long;, the broad bracts about 6 millimeters long; the calyx is about 1.7 centimeters long, with narrow, long, pointed lobes; the standard petal is from 3 to 4 centimeters long. The hairy pod is about 13 centimeters long, or shorter, about 1 centimeter wide, the mottled, compressed seeds 5 or 6 millimeters long.

• Discussion

  Bejuco de conchitas Blue Pea Pea Family Clitoria ternatea Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 753. 1753.