Fodder-pea

Lathyrus annuus L. (Fabaceae), the fodder-pea or annual vetchling, is a slender annual legume native to the Mediterranean basin, the Near East and parts of southwestern Asia and naturalised more widely as a fodder and weedy escape. Stems are climbing or scrambling, 30-100 cm long, distinctly winged and glabrous. Leaves bear a single pair of narrowly linear-lanceolate leaflets 4-10 cm long and terminate in a branched tendril; stipules are small, narrowly lanceolate and semi-sagittate. The pea-like flowers are borne singly or in pairs on long axillary peduncles and are typically yellow to orange-yellow, 12-18 mm long, with a striate standard. The flat oblong pod is 3-6 cm long, glabrous and netted-veined, containing several smooth, brown to mottled seeds. The seeds contain neurotoxic non-protein amino acids (β-aminopropionitrile and related lathyrogens) that cause lathyrism in humans and livestock if consumed in quantity over time.