Small's Milkpea

Pine rocklands of southern Miami-Dade County, with South Florida slash pine, saw palmetto, willow bustic, and poison wood, within open to semi-open microsites.

Small’s milkpea is a perennial herb with trailing stems up to 6 feet long, sometimes twining at tips, with a dense covering of short hairs. Leaves are alternate, with three broad oval leaflets, less than an inch long. Typical pea flowers with a large upright banner petal ranging in color from pale pink to purple in clusters of 1 to 5 at the ends of the stalks that extend beyond leaves. Fruit is a hairy pod, about one and a half inches long.

The flowers are pollinated by the Cassius blue butterfly (Leptotes cassius theonus) and other insects. The fruit is a small hairy legume pod.

Small's milkpea is distinguished from other Galactia species by the type and abundance of stem and leaf hairs, and by shape of the leaflets. Florida milkpea (Galactia floridana) leaflets are longer and wider and have visibly hairy upper surfaces; although Florida milkpea stems are hairy, they appear green rather than gray. Additionally, Florida milkpea flowers typically do not extend beyond the leaves as in Small’s milkpea.

Franck, A. R. (2017). Notes on trifoliolate species of Galactia (Fabaceae) in Florida. Phytologia, 99(2), 139-185.