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…

Like 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.

Right 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….

I’ll pick the romance every time…

So 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….