What was that plant.......

[Troy]

I saw fields of little flowers growing along the roadside in the Palm Beach Area last weekend.

As I stared out the window of the car watching miles of this stuff go by I thought it would never end.

I saw honey bees working it when we stopped for gas.

I should have taken a picture, because now I have no idea what it was.

Is anyone from the Palm Beach area? What are those tiny flowers growing all over down there?

At a glance it looks like clover, but it is not. The flower is simpler and slightly blue/lavender colored. The plant is a vine-like plant and grows in the mowed area of the median and roadsides.

[Hobie]

Sounds like it could be Crown Vetch, which is a popular ground cover for highway medians:

http://inspirezone.org/hiking/crownvetch.jpg

[CSbees]

The more casual old timer name for it is henbit. It makes an extreemely sweet, thich very very flowery tasting honey. The only drawback is that it crystallizes in about 3 or 4 months.

[Troy]

Hobie an CSbees,

I appreciate the leads, but I looked up both henbit and crown vetch on Google images and neither of these look quite right.

When comparing against images of the crown vetch - what I saw had a simpler flower. I would say that the vetch flower looks very much like a clover - I guess they would call that compound or a multiple layered flower. What I saw was single. Also, the vetch appears to have compound leaves, whereas the plant I saw was more of a horizontal growing v each leaf coming straight off the stem of the vine.

Henbit looks even farther off. Are Henbit and crown vetch supposed to be the same plant? The pictures look very different.

Do you know of any more pictures or ideas?

[Troy]

I should add that the color of the flower that I saw does indeed match the color of the crown vetch.

Maybe what I saw was a simpler form? Maybe a wild form or something? the vetch appears to have pinnately compound leaves and that plant I saw did not appear to have complex leaves like this. I picked some, but did not attempt to identify it until a few days later and it is all shriveled up now. When I get home from work I will look at the shriveled bits more carefully.

[Walliebee]

I'm going to say that it is a vetch (Vicia sp.), but not crown vetch (Coronilla varia) which you can see is in a totally different genus of plants. There are over 150 different species of vetch. Some are native to only central/south Florida, while others are invasives that grow everywhere.

All in all, they are great plants for forage, nectar, and soil building. Cow vetch and hairy vetch are two really common ones.

[CSbees]

I also have some hairy vetch up here. This is more of a sprawling vine. It has deep purple colored flowers coming off of only one side of the end. It also has hairy looking tendrils.

[Troy]

I read up some more on this and it seems that Crown Vetch is predominantly a Northeast region plant and one page I read specifically said that it is NOT suited to the hot and humid southeast.

Which lends some credence to the idea that it is a vetch of some kind, but not crown vetch or hairy vetch, but something similar that is more adapted to the hot and humid conditions of the Deep South.

Please keep the ideas coming. I'm getting almost desperate enough to go drive back down there (2 1/2 Hour drive each way) to look at it again. It is driving me crazy.

You mentioned Cow Vetch - I'll go look that up........

[Troy]

Well here I am a year later. I'm still trying to figure out what this is more precisely.

I picked some again last weekend while down in the Stuart area.

[Hambone]

http://agronomy.ifas.ufl.edu/ForagesofFlorida/detail.php?sp=Aeschynomene,%20deer%20vetch,%20join t%20vetch&type=L

[beemandan]

If its really bugging and if its a native vetch, you go to this web site and enter vetch into the name search. Then, you work your way through the list. Most have photos.
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/

[nutso]

Just a thought - a lot of state agricultural agencies have pretty knockout sites with searchable databases and pictures of plants that are common to the state. Some private colleges have them too. You might be able to google on the state name along with some other descriptors and hit the jackpot.

Do I understand that this plant is something you saw in California though you are more commonly located in Florida? Just trying to get where this plant is located straight.

Good luck!

[dragonfly]

Take a photo and post it. I'm really curious as to what it is.

[beemandan]

I saw fields of little flowers growing along the roadside in the Palm Beach Area last weekend.


Do I understand that this plant is something you saw in California though you are more commonly located in Florida? Just trying to get where this plant is located straight.

I believe that he is saying that he saw these plants around the Palm Beach area of Florida.

[Troy]

Yes I saw them in the Palm Beach area of Florida.

No I don't think it is the vetch based on the photo shown above. Leaves are not fern-like as shown.

Also the description says the vetch grows to 30 inches tall.

This thing is a vine and is happily blooming in the mowed roadside area.

I did take some pictures. I will upload as soon as I can post links here.

Thanks,

[Ross]

Maybe singletary peas?
http://texnat.tamu.edu/cmplants/toxic/Acrobat/Singletary%20pea.pdf

[KQ6AR]

If its a pea or a vetch, it will have pea like seed pods you could collect & cultivate. Pick a few on you're next visit.

[pgg]

Could it be Borage?

[KQ6AR]

The borage here is a tall non vining plant, it does have fuzzy leaves though.

[Sunshine]

Vinca minor is a common ground cover with low growing vines and single blue flowers - it is also called periwinkle. Pretty stuff even when it isn't in bloom. And talk about durable! It survives drought, flood, freeze, kids walking all over it, and escaped goats gnawing it to the ground.

[mobees]

Crown vetch is not used by honey bees so
It is something else.

[USCBeeMan]

Searched for "Vetch as a roadside flower"

http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=vetch+as+a+roadside+flower&form=IGRE#

Perhaps it is among the large group of pictures in this link.

[Walliebee]

I did take some pictures. I will upload as soon as I can post links here.

Thanks,

Hey Troy,

Any chance of getting those pictures uploaded?

[Anthony Ritenour]

If you can give a more detailed description other than being like crownvetch, I can probably tell you what it is. I live in South Florida and have a good idea of the native plants here. As a sidenote, many plants in south Florida are naturalized from South America and other tropical/subtropical regions. If you can't get the pictures, be more descriptive of the flower color, the height of the vine, how dark the leaves are, and ....

[Beehappy1950]

Why dont you call the chamber of commerce down there. I am sure they could answer your question or tell you who planted it. Harold