Common Pea
Pisum sativum
The common pea was the primary subject of Gregor Mendel's 19th-century experiments, which formed the basis of modern genetics.
- Scientific name
- Pisum sativum
- Taxonomy
- Plantae › Tracheophyta › Magnoliopsida › Fabales › Fabaceae › Pisum
- IUCN Red List status
- Least Concern
- Population trend
- stable
- Biome
- urban
- Habitat
- Cultivated gardens, agricultural fields, and temperate disturbed areas.
- Diet
- Autotrophic (Photosynthesis and Nitrogen fixation via root nodules).
- Range
- Worldwide, Mediterranean Basin, Near East, North America, Europe
- Size
- Climbing vines typically 1 to 2 meters in length.
- Lifespan
- Annual (3 to 5 months)
- Active
- diurnal
- Threats
- Agricultural pests like aphids, fungal infections such as powdery mildew, and extreme drought.
- Safe to approach?
- Harmless and edible. These plants are safe to handle and consume. If you have a known legume allergy, avoid ingestion. No special precautions are needed when encountering them in a garden or field.
The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum . Each pod contains several peas. Pea pods are botanically fruit, since they contain seeds and developed from the ovary of a (pea) flower. The name is also used to describe other edible seeds from the Fabaceae such as the pigeon pea ( Cajanus cajan ), the cowpea ( Vigna unguiculata ), and the seeds from several species of Lathyrus .
Photo: Forest and Kim Starr, CC-BY, via iNaturalist
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