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YELLOW PEA
Lathyrus pratensis
Family LEGUMINOSAE
Known also as the Meadow Vetchling, this plant is fairly common in moist meadow and copse, and on hedge-banks throughout Britain .
lt is a perennial, with weak, much branched stems, straggling to the length of one or two feet.
lt has a creeping underground rootstock, from which rise several sharp-angled stems. The leaves are each divided into two lance-shaped leaflets, with, in most cases, a short branched tendril springing between them. At the axil of each leaf-stalk there is a pair of very large stipules, of the arrowhead type, and broader than the leaflets.
From six to ten small, bright yellow flowers are borne in racemes, supported by a stalk, an inch or more in length. The calyx is tubular, with five long awl-shaped points, and the large erect petal, called the standard, is marked with several thin purple streaks. The style is flattened and its inner surface bearded.
It may be found in flower from June to September.
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