Wild Peas

• Nature News by Marlene A. Condon
• Jun 3, 2024

Just about now, hillsides throughout Virginia are taking on the pink and purple hue of Perennial (or Everlasting) Peas. These plants are also called Wild Peas, and their scientific name is Lathyrus latifolius.

 These non-native vines of southern Europe “escaped” from garden cultivation to grow “wild” (or on their own) throughout the countryside. Although many people plant Perennial Peas solely for the beauty of their blossoms, I enjoy having these vines — which can grow up to 9 feet long — in my yard for wildlife.

 The blooms of Perennial Pea attract many kinds of insects, especially butterflies and bees. The flower petals easily support either kind of insect while it’s making a meal of nectar, thus allowing it a chance to rest instead of hovering while it eats. But what I find most interesting about Perennial Peas is their attraction to American Goldfinches.

 Pick up any book about American birds and you will read that goldfinches eat almost exclusively seeds, even feeding their young regurgitated seeds instead of insects. These birds possess a conical bill to easily crush seed shells, whereas insect-eating birds tend to have thin straight bills for poking into crevices (where insects often hide) and “spearing” them.

 It’s very rare for parent birds to feed their chicks only seeds because developing babies need, as a rule, animal protein to grow properly. However, one day I discovered that American Goldfinches do eat insects — aphids.

 I had planted Perennial Peas around my lamp post so they could cover it with flowers throughout the summer after the clematis growing there had finished its spring blooming. As I looked out the window one afternoon to see if anything interesting was happening in the front yard, I saw some American Goldfinches poking around among the pea vines. They remained there for such a long time that I knew they had to be eating something.

 Yet they were not poking at seed pods as if trying to get seeds, nor were they around the blossoms as if trying to get nectar (finches and orioles feed upon nectar just like hummingbirds do). I was dying of curiosity, but I waited (im?)patiently for the birds to fly away.

 As soon as they did, I rushed out to the lamp post to try to figure out what those birds had been after. What I found were aphids, tiny insects that tend to become numerous on plants suffering from a lack of water, and, indeed, we’d been having a dry spell. I hadn’t watered because I prefer plants in my yard to make it on their own.

 Because I had never read that goldfinches eat aphids, I wondered if that was, indeed, what the birds had been eating or if I was mistaken. However, it’s been many years since that initial observation, and every time I’ve noticed goldfinches poking at leaves on my Perennial Peas or any other kind of plant, I have immediately checked the plant and there are always aphids to be found!

Marlene A. Condon is the author/photographer of The Nature-friendly Garden: Creating a Backyard Haven for Plants, Wildlife, and People (Stackpole Books; information at www.marlenecondon.com). She writes a blog at https://InDefenseofNature.blogspot.com/