Species
+

Lathyrus odoratus L.

Guisante de Olor, Sweet Pea, Sweetpea, arbeyu de golor

Climate known 85 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

The sweet pea, Lathyrus odoratus, is a flowering plant in the genus Lathyrus in the family Fabaceae (legumes), native to Sicily, southern Italy and the Aegean Islands.

Text from Wikipedia, “Sweet pea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Lathyrus

Lathyrus is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae, and contains approximately 160 species. Commonly known as peavines or vetchlings, they are native to temperate areas, with a breakdown of 52 species in Europe, 30 species in North America, 78 in Asia, 24 in tropical East Africa, and 24 in temperate South America. There are annual and perennial species which may be climbing or bushy. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Lathyrus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Italy, Sicilia
Wild records
81 in range· 34 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
788mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Oct 102 mm (CHELSA)
Light
10–45DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, September to January and March to April in the northern hemisphere (September to January and March to April at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 788 mm a year, wettest October at 102 mm, driest July at 19 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 45 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Lathyrus cyprius Rech.f.; Lathyrus maccaguenii Tod.; Lathyrus maccaguenii Tod. ex Nyman; Lathyrus odoratus f. pleniflorus Moldenke; Lathyrus odoratus var. albus Alef. and 10 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, September to January and March to April in the northern hemisphere (September to January and March to April at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (589 mm of 788 mm) falls in September to January and March to April, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 11.7 °C against a yearly mean of 14.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: March to July and September to October.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 788 mm a year, wettest October at 102 mm, driest July at 19 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

788 mm a year at the habitat, 589 mm of it September to January and March to April. Wettest month October at 102 mm, driest July at 19 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 601 mm to 1110 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 45 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 1.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.2 °C, the absolute minimum -6.1 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 2.4 °C in February (across the envelope cells -0.7 °C to 8.1 °C), warmest day 27.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 10 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Feb to 18 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 788 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 51 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -6.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost32.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-6.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 10–45RH 55–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 51 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C10 / 6–1310 / 8–1313 / 10–1516 / 14–1820 / 18–2225 / 22–2728 / 25–3028 / 25–3023 / 21–2519 / 16–2214 / 10–1710 / 7–14
Night °C3 / -2–82 / -1–84 / 2–107 / 5–1211 / 9–1515 / 13–1918 / 15–2218 / 16–2215 / 13–1912 / 9–167 / 4–124 / -1–9
Rain mm80 / 47–10754 / 41–7459 / 48–9172 / 46–11156 / 28–11839 / 12–9219 / 7–6631 / 16–8381 / 57–114102 / 83–14898 / 82–13597 / 68–131
DLI12 / 10–1618 / 16–2227 / 24–3234 / 31–3940 / 35–4443 / 39–4845 / 40–4939 / 34–4329 / 25–3320 / 17–2513 / 11–1710 / 8–14
RH %62 / 58–6560 / 58–6359 / 57–6158 / 57–6058 / 53–6157 / 51–6255 / 49–6257 / 51–6259 / 57–6161 / 60–6362 / 60–6562 / 58–67

Each figure is the median across the 51 grid cells holding the 54 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 927:3736 (43.625, 6.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -6.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 51 distinct grid cells holding the 54 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 927:3736 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 43.50_6.875, lapse-corrected +41 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 286 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeItaly, Sicilia· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, France, Portugal, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Canary Is., Madeira, Rwanda, Primorye, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iraq, Korea, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Jawa, New Guinea, South Australia, Victoria, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Manitoba, Newfoundland, Ontario, Québec, Idaho, Illinois, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Mexico Southwest, El Salvador, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru
Kew's description“scrambling annual” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker37.858, 13.529 · in the densest population, 42 records (52% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 81 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 34 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 861 km away. 1443 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 27 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 81 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Lathyrus odoratusLathyrus odoratusLathyrus odoratusLathyrus odoratusLathyrus odoratusLathyrus odoratusLathyrus odoratusLathyrus odoratus

Photographs: (c) nmoorhatch, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Lathyrus odoratus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Fitness effects of two facultative endosymbiotic bacteria on the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, and the blue alfalfa aphid, A. kondoi
De‐Qiao Chen, C. B. Montllor, Alexander H. Purcell (2000) · Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata
Localized hypermutation and associated gene losses in legume chloroplast genomes
Alan M. Magee, Sue Aspinall, Danny W. Rice, Brian Cusack (2010) · Genome Research
LESIONS OF THE SKELETON AND OF OTHER MESODERMAL TISSUES IN RATS FED SWEET-PEA (LATHYRUS ODORATUS) SEEDS
Ignacio V. Ponseti, Robert S. Shepard (1954) · Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery
Tendril-less Regulates Tendril Formation in Pea Leaves
Julie Hofer, Lynda Turner, Carol Moreau, Mike Ambrose (2009) · The Plant Cell
Isolation and Identification of a Neuroactive Factor from Lathyrus latifolius
Charlotte Ressler, Paul A. Redstone, Renée H. Erenberg (1961) · Science
Lathyrism: a neurotoxic disease.
Peter S. Spencer, Herbert H. Schaumburg (1984) · PubMed
Flower power: its association with bee power and floral functional morphology in papilionate legumes
Silvina Alejandra Córdoba, Andrea A. Cocucci (2011) · Annals of Botany
Seed Priming with Silicon as a Potential to Increase Salt Stress Tolerance in Lathyrus odoratus
Rasha S. El‐Serafy, Abdel-Nasser A. El-Sheshtawy, Amira K. G. Atteya, Abdulrahman Al-Hashimi (2021) · Plants
Effect of Silver Thiosulfate Complex (STS) in Combination with Sucrose on the Vase Life of Cut Sweet Pea Flowers.
Kazuo Ichimura, Toshihiko Hiraya (1999) · Journal of the Japanese Society for Horticultural Science
Lathyrus Factor Activity of Beta-Aminopropionitrile and Related Compounds.
Teresa Bachhuber, Joseph J. Lalich, D. Murray Angevine, E. D. Schilling (1955) · Experimental Biology and Medicine

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Lathyrus 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 202 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.