Norfolk everlasting-pea

Lathyrus heterophyllus, the Norfolk everlasting-pea or various-leaved pea, is a herbaceous perennial climber in the Fabaceae family native to central and southern Europe, extending into the British Isles where it is rare and largely restricted to chalky or limestone grassland and scrub margins. Plants produce slender, scrambling stems 1 to 2 metres long with conspicuous broad wings along their length. The leaves are pinnate, bearing one to three pairs of narrow-elliptic leaflets and terminating in branched tendrils used for climbing; juvenile leaves often have a single pair of leaflets, giving rise to the specific epithet meaning differing leaves. Flowers appear in summer in long-stalked racemes of three to eight rose-pink to purple papilionaceous blooms, each about two centimetres long, lacking the strong fragrance of garden sweetpea. The fruit is a flat, hairless legume containing several smooth seeds.