Vetch or Sweet Pea by Any Other Names Would Still be Pretty Pretty

Driving along Orr Springs Road, there is a luminous purple cast to many of the hills. I have never seen more of the tiny purple and pink flowers growing profusely in dense, unruly patches. This is no doubt due to the plentiful and lingering spring rain. We just had another two and a half inches in the last 24 hours. They are either vetch or wild pea. Spring vetch, which is a purple- or pink-flowered climber native to Europe, is cultivated for food and forage. It is a valued fixer of nitrogen for the soil. Some gardeners grow it solely to turn it back into the soil.

According to my friend and neighbor, Linda Gray, there are 18 varieties of vetch in California only four of which are native. There are 30 varieties of wild pea, about 20 of those native. She also says that to find out what species it is it we would need to dissect and inspect the flowers with a hand lens.

Maybe we will take the time to find out together what species they are, or perhaps I’ll just watch them fade as summer comes along and their flowers turn to seed. Whatever the particular species, their beauty is truly astounding.