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Plant Listings
Centrosema virginianum
Common Names:
Butterfly Pea
Family:
Fabaceae
Habit:
Centrosema virginianum
grows as a trailing or climbing perennial vine to 2 meters in length. The trifoliate leaves are arranged alternately and are up to 12 cm in length. The leaflets are linear, to 8 cm in length, with an acute leaf apex and entire margin.
C. virginianum
is distinguished from
C. angustifolium
by having ovate vs. linear leaflets.
The complete, perfect, zygomorphic flowers are solitary arising from leaf axils and are subtended by 2 bracts. The calyx has 5 partially fused green sepals. The corolla has 5 pink/purple petals. The upper 2 petals are fused into a keel and the lower sepal is enlarged as a landing. There are 10 diadelphous stamens (9 fused and a single free). The ovary is superior and has a single locule. The fruit is a legume at maturity.
Habitat:
Centrosema virginianum
grows in human disturbed areas such as abandoned fields and along the edges of Dry Broadleaf Evergreen Formation-Forest/Shrublands (coppice).
Distribution:
Centrosema virginianum
occurs in all island groupings of the Lucayan Archipelago as well as the southern United States, Caribbean region Central America and northern South America.
Medicinal/Cultural/Economic usage:
Centrosema virginianum
has no known medicinal usage in the Lucayan Archipelago.
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