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Lathyrus japonicus

 
Lathyrus Japonicus

 
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Lathyrus japonicus
 
 
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Lathyrus japonicus (syn. L. maritimus; common names Sea Pea, Beach Pea, Circumpolar Pea, Sea Vetchling) is a legume
Legume

A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae , or a fruit of these specific plants. A legume fruit is a Fruit#Simple fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually Dehiscence on two sides....
 native to temperate coastal areas of Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, North
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 and South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
.

It is a herbaceous
Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaf and stem that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. A herbaceous plant may be Annual plant, Biennial plant or Perennial plant....
 perennial plant
Perennial plant

A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. When used by gardeners or horticulturalists, this term applies specifically to perennial herbaceous plants....
 growing trailing stems to 50-80 cm long, typically on sand and gravel storm beaches. The leaves
Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
 are waxy glaucous green, 5-10 cm long, pinnate, with 2-5 pairs of leaflets, the terminal leaflet usually replaced by a twining tendril.






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Lathyrus japonicus (syn. L. maritimus; common names Sea Pea, Beach Pea, Circumpolar Pea, Sea Vetchling) is a legume
Legume

A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae , or a fruit of these specific plants. A legume fruit is a Fruit#Simple fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually Dehiscence on two sides....
 native to temperate coastal areas of Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, North
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 and South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
.

It is a herbaceous
Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaf and stem that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. A herbaceous plant may be Annual plant, Biennial plant or Perennial plant....
 perennial plant
Perennial plant

A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. When used by gardeners or horticulturalists, this term applies specifically to perennial herbaceous plants....
 growing trailing stems to 50-80 cm long, typically on sand and gravel storm beaches. The leaves
Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
 are waxy glaucous green, 5-10 cm long, pinnate, with 2-5 pairs of leaflets, the terminal leaflet usually replaced by a twining tendril. The flower
Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s are 14-22 mm broad, with a dark purple standard petal and paler purple wing and keel petals; they are produced in raceme
Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate growth and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called Pedicel s — along the axis....
s of 2-7 together.

The unusually extensive native range is explained by the ability of the seed
Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
s to remain viable while floating in sea water for up to 5 years, enabling the seeds to drift nearly worldwide. Germination occurs when the hard outer seed coat is abraded by waves on sand and gravel.

The pods can be eaten but like many members of the genus Lathyrus
Lathyrus

The genus Lathyrus consists of the sweet peas and vetchlings, flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae. There are approximately 160 species of Lathyrus; they are native to temperate areas, with a breakdown of 52 species in Europe, 30 species in North America, 78 in Asia, 24 in tropical East Africa, and 24 in temperat...
 they contain ß-oxalyl-L-a,ß-diaminopropionic acid, which can cause paralysis called lathyrism
Lathyrism

Lathyrism or Neurolathyrism is a neurological disease of humans and domestic animals, caused by eating certain legumes of the genus Lathyrus....
. The leaves of the plant are used in Chinese traditional medicine.