Florida Flora Friday: Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata)

 

(Sourced from Flickr under Creative Commons license, artist Aaron Carlson)

This will be the last Florida Flora Friday for a bit. We'll be out of town next week, so no new post then. This week, I want to highlight Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata). Ki's an annual, not a perennial, but this is a striking native wildflower that grows pretty big with enough space and really draws in the pollinators. Our native bees love Partridge Pea!

This is a great choice for a pollinator garden but can work well in informal plantings, too. Because ki's a legume, poor soil isn't a problem and growing Pigeon Pea can help enrich it with nitrogen, improving overall soil health and boosting the success of nearby and succession plants. 

Ki prefers full sun and well-drained, sandy soil. Birds, especially the bobwhite, are attracted to the seeds. Ki is also the larval host for several butterflies, including the Cloudless Sulfur, Gray Hairstreak, and several others. However, while it attracts pollinators of all types, including Velvet Ants (wingless wasps), only long-tongued bees can pollinate the flowers. 

Partridge Pea might be an annual, but it self-seeds prolifically, so there should be no problem keeping kin going year after year. The Cherokee used ki to treat spasms in infants when combined with Wild Senna.

Check out the entries from the Florida Native Plant Society and the Florida Wildflower Foundation for more info on kin.