Category Archives: beach peas

Beach flowers

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I love beach flowers. I love that they persevere through sandy and salty onslaughts. I love that they add a splash of color to the landscape before all the sun bathers arrive with their umbrellas, towels and beach balls.

I especially love beach peas…

008Like all peas, vetches, locusts and the like, beach peas belong to the legume family and will have pods for their seeds or peas by mid summer. Beach peas are supposedly edible but are always full of bugs when I pick them….that’s a little too much protein for me.

010Right now you can find beach peas in bloom on just about every beach on the Cape. You will also find our beach rose, rosa rugosa. Believe it or not, this lovely iconic Cape Cod flower is not native! It is an Asian washashore either brought here in bilge water or by a lovesick sea captain for his beloved wife. You pick the story you like….

003I’ll pick the romance every time…

005So get on out there and smell the flowers while they last….beach flowers are ethereal things and disappear as soon as a hint of heat arrives….

 

 

 

 

Beach peas are everywhere!

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Not only are there lots of beach roses in bloom at the beach but the beach peas are in bloom, too.

Beach peas really are wild peas and are found all over Cape Cod, especially in areas that have dunes.

Their sweet purple blossoms attract lots of bees and butterflies and have a subtle scent that even we humans can enjoy.

Once they are done blooming the plants will be setting up their seed pods which of course are full of tiny peas. They are safe to eat but good luck finding any that are ripe enough –the pods are really too tough to be enjoyable–and not occupied by other hungry little critters.

Beach Flowers

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Many of our beach flowers are blooming early this year. Lovely pink rosa rugosa is everywhere. Some areas have white blossoms as well but pink is the predominant color. Did you know that this iconic flower is actually a non-native? It arrived here from the orient in the mid 1800’s…
The other beach flower that is blooming up a storm right now is the beach pea. Yes, it is a real pea and also edible if you can find one not eaten by rabbits or other animals. Right now they are flowering like crazy. Look for plants that are low to the ground filled with violet or red-violet blossoms. In some areas they cover large swatches of sand.

You can find these at almost any Cape beach. These were photographed in Hyannis.