Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata) -NEW!
Description
Self-Seeding Native Annual. We love this little beauty! The leaves are small blue-green ovals oppositely paired on stems topped with happy yellow flowers that feed pollinators in the summer. In the fall, the flowers give way to small maroon seed pods which will self-sow in medium-dry soil. They also provide food for birds over the winter. The Partridge Pea leaves also host several butterfly species: Orange Sulfur, Sleepy Orange, and Little Yellow (what a warm palette of butterflies!)
The Partridge Pea is also known as the Sensitive plant, as it’s leaves curl inwards when touched.
Like all legumes, this plant helps add nitrogen to the soil, because it has a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria on its roots. Did you know that even through that most of our air is composed of nitrogen, that only 3 things on earth can make it useable for plants (and thus, through the food chain, to animals like us)- volcanic activity, lightning AND the nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live attached to the roots of legumes. Fun fact: the nitrogen cycle was one of my favorite things to teach when I was a high school biology teacher- can you tell?!
Height: 2 ft, Sun: Full-partial, Soil: Medium-Dry, Bloom Time: July-September