sea pea

plural sea peas

1. A variety of pea ( Lathyrus japonicus) found on beaches.

   In a time of great scarcity, the people about our coast found the sea pea in great plenty, and fed upon it.

   1758, Thomas Hale, A Compleat Body of Husbandry, page 389

   3 more examples

   Growing between sea and land, so that it might almost be doubted in which element it is denizen, the Sea Pea, Lathyrus maritimus, turns up, very local, at various places on our southern and eastern coasts, and is known elsewhere throughout the British Isles only from a few stations in Wales and Ireland.

   1963, Anthony Gishford, Tribute to Benjamin Britten on His Fiftieth Birthday, page 145

   The shingle itself – so much of it, so clean and smooth – the flatness, throwing the immense blue dome of the sky into even greater relief, the symmetrical mounds of blue-green sea kale, the creeping skeins of sea pea with its bright-purple flowers, the air, the space, the wind, it was all exhilerating...

   2011, Joanna Trollope, Daughters-in-Law, →ISBN

   Mines had been placed along our beaches to proetect the country from invasion, and this resulted in an abundance of rough green carpets of sea peas with fat sturdy leaves, thanks to the lack of human traffic.

   2018, Michael Ondaatje, Warlight, →ISBN, pages 284–285

   Synonyms: beach pea