Plant of the Week: Spurred butterfly pea (Centrosema virginianum)

Sorry for not posting anything last week, but I spent the entire week in the ICU unit at Central Baptist and funny how they don't let you access computers and such; but then I didn't feel much like doing much of anything so I guess we shall call it a wash.  But I am back and this weeks plant is outstanding vine, considered rare in Kentucky, but quite showy and profuse in the length of blooming season and beauty of the individual flowers.  The spurred butterfly pea is a short 6 to 8; long vine that doesn't have tendrils and has a tendency to intertwine among existing vegetation.  For this reason, you should probably keep in on a short trellis (along with some native clematis like C. crispa, C. texensis, and C. glaucophylla) for an extended blooming period on the trellis.  The companion vines are also short species and will flower much earlier in the year compared to this species which blooms in July through September.  It is considered a perennial vine, but in Kentucky it acts like an annual and it easily self seeds from the interesting narrow seed pods that are quite showy as well when dangling as they look like a long French string bean dried out.  It likes dry, open sandy soils in pine barrens, but is quite adaptable to most growing conditions.  The three individual leaflets are generally lance-shaped and range to 2" long.  This is the larval host plant for the long-tailed skipper and northern cloudy wing butterflies.  The primary pollinators for this plant are bees and it is a nitrogen fixing species.  I think you will be surprised if you grow this plant because the 2 -3" lavender flowers are very showy and most people in Kentucky are unfamiliar with this plant.