Owl's Acre Sweet Peas : Sweet Pea Trivia

OWL'S ACRE SWEET PEAS

Sweet Peas for Exhibition and Garden

Sundry trivial facts about sweet peas.

The sweet pea is popularly known as the "Queen of Annuals".
The Latin name for the sweet pea is Lathyrus odoratus. This was the name chosen by the great Swedish naturalist Linnaeus to replace the former, less memorable, but highly descriptive Lathyrus distoplatyphyllus, hirsutus, mollis, magno et peramaeno flore, odoro given to it in 1696 by Franciscus Cupani.
The genus Lathyrus contains about 160 species.
2000 was the centenary year of the National Sweet Pea Society.
The original introduction had rather small flowers, but was very strongly scented. It is still available under the name Cupani or "Cupani Original".
Much early work in genetics was done at Cambridge University, using sweet peas as the subject.
Sweet peas come in a very wide range of colours, but not yellow. Early expectations of being able to breed a yellow sweet pea by conventional means were already fading rapidly by 1915.
Attempts are being made to create a yellow sweet pea by crossing Lathyrus odoratus with other species, including the recently discovered Lathyrus belinensis.
The Spencer, Cupid and Winter Flowering strains of sweet pea all arose from chance mutations rather than from planned breeding.
Sports without tendrils occur regularly.
Sweet pea flowers naturally self pollinate while still in bud. This means that the colour and scent of the flowers are essentially redundant as the flower has no need to attract insects or other pollinators.
Sweet peas are not edible, being somewhat poisonous if eaten in quantity.
The most demanding class in the NSPS National show is the Daily Mail Cup which requires 15 stems each of 12 distinct varieties.
The great Daily Mail competition of 1912 offered a first prize of £1 000, and attracted 35 000 entries.
The Clay Cup is awarded to the best vase of sweet peas at the NSPS show each year.
Sweet peas are widely grown in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the USA.
By 1913 about 1700 acres of sweet peas were being grown in California to meet the annual demand for some 450 tons of seed, about half of which went to Europe, mostly to England.
Many of the most prominent names in the annals of the Sweet Pea in the USA belonged to natives of Scotland. George W. Kerr was a native of Dumfries, J. Harrison Dick was from the Lothians, and Frank G. Cuthbertson was the son of William Cuthbertson, V.M.H. of Dobbie and Co., Edinburgh.
Market research consistently finds sweet peas to be one of the top three favourite flowers in the UK.
Fresh flowers in the house have been shown to improve general wellbeing, boost both male and female libido, and lessen the effects of a hangover.
Sweet peas are known as Les pois de Senteur in France.
Italians call sweet peas Pisello odoroso.
Guisante de olor is the spanish term for sweet pea, but few Spaniards are familiar with it.
In Holland the name is Pronkerwt.
The German name is Wicke or Edelwicke.
Luktärt is the Swedish, Aerteblomst the Danish, and Lillhernes the Estonian for sweet pea, while in Finland the term is Hajuherne.
Sweet peas grow well in Soth Africa where they are known as pronkertjies, while in Poland the name is groszek pachnacy.
The scientific Latin name is Lathyrus odoratus.
If you know the name for sweet peas in other languages - let us know.

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