~ BOARD OF WATER rn AND SOIL RESOURCES 11 August 2018 of the Month

BWSR Featured Plant Name: Partridge ( fasciculata) Plant family: (Caesalpiniaceae) Partridge pea Partridge pea, AKA sleeping flowers July through September plant, is a brightly colored annual in Minnesota, with fine-textured leaves that’s providing food for native to Minnesota. The plant is pollinators. Blooms grow along the often called stem and between “sleeping Plant Stats the leaves. The plant” or plant is also known “sensitive STATEWIDE as “sensitive pea” WETLAND because when pea” because INDICATOR touched, the leaflets the leaflets collapse into each STATUS: FACU collapse other. Photo Credit: PRIMARY Fritz Flohr Reynolds into each USES: Pollinator other when nutrition, food touched. In for wildlife Minnesota, partridge pea blooms July through September. Flowers provide a food source for a variety of pollinators; seed pods attract birds, including quail and . An early pioneer , partridge pea can establish itself on disturbed, sandy soil. It makes a good cover crop for restoration and erosion control.

Uses Range The plant contains a In Minnesota, it’s carthartic substance toxic found in several areas to humans and livestock throughout the southern when consumed, but highly part of the state. nutritious for animals such Neither endangered nor as mice, deer and birds. threatened in the U.S., When partridge pea grows the species grows in in large masses, it provides parts of the Midwest and cover for birds. A host East. Its favored habitats Flowers’ 10 slender, maroon plant for several butterfly stamens contrast with the five include open woods, species, it provides bright yellow petals. Photo disturbed soil, prairies, Range map source: The range map is for , insects and birds. Credit: Laura Lukens bluffs and riverbanks. based on the USDA Database.

www.bwsr.state.mn.us 1 Planting Recommendations Partridge pea grows well planted a quarter-inch to on clay, loam, clay-loam, three-quarters of an inch deep. sandy loam and sandy soil. An annual species, partridge Planting sites should be well- pea generally persists most drained with full or part sun. effectively in sandy soils where Seeds should be planted in there is a lack of competition late winter or early spring. and it can re-establish from Scarification before planting seed. The species generally initiates germination. Seeds disappears in plantings should be inoculated with dominated by tall, warm- compatible rhizobium and season grasses. Scotch broom, an invasive species not yet found Identification in Minnesota, is similar to Flowers of the partridge pea partridge pea but grow along the stem and produces hundreds between the leaves. Each of flowers and less leafy foliage. flower has five yellow petals, It has been found measuring about 1 inch in in the eastern and diameter. The upper four western United petals have red splotches at States. the base; the lower petal is Photo Credits: typically slightly larger and David Stang, top; hangs below. Each flower Brylie Oxley, left contains 10 long, slender deep maroon stamens. Small Similar Species compound leaves alternate Scotch broom is an invasive plant found in the eastern along the stem, producing and western United States. It has not yet reached five to 18 pairs of opposite Minnesota. Scotch broom has pods and flowers of a leaflets. Tiny hairs along leaf similar size and color, but produces less leafy foliage edges can sense disturbance and hundreds of flowers — which bloom earlier in the and trigger movement in the season. Partridge pea grows 1 to 3 feet tall. leaves. The fruits are slender, Alternate, compound leaves produce flat and shaped like pea pods. five to 18 pairs of opposite leaflets. Green with fine hairs, the In Minnesota, the plant is found pods turn dark brown as they primarily in the south. It prefers open woods, disturbed soil, prairies, mature. Partridge pea grows bluffs and riverbanks.Photo Credit: about 1 to 3 feet tall with a Thomas G. Barnes 12- to 18-inch spread.

References Minnesota Wildflowers: https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/flower/partridge-pea Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center:https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=chfa2 USDA Pants Database: https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=chfa2

Developed by Laura Lukens and Katya Vorokhobova

www.bwsr.state.mn.us 2