Vigna, Asparagus Bean, Cow Pea, Cowpea, Southern Pea, Yard Long Bean 'Little Red Peanut Peas'

These are wonderful plants! They grow densely so do make a great screen or annual grondcover. The yield may not be as much as other pea...Read Mores, but I think the beauty of the plants more than makes up for it.

They self-seed here in my zone 8b Texas garden. All the pictures I uploaded here are of plants that grew from dropped seed from last year's plants that also grew from dropped seed. Also, I didn't water these regularly ~ maybe every other week. We did get a lot of unseasonal rain up until and through the first week of July, but nothing since ~ it's now August 29, 2002. Temps have been in the high 90s daytime and 70s at night.

The information in the second paragraph in the above comment is exactly what I got from the SSE member when I obtained the seeds five years ago (in 1997).

Added November 2, 2002:
We finally got a crop and ate some slow-cooked with bacon. YUM! They do taste like the canned field peas from HEB ~ reminiscent of black-eyed-peas, but not much of the musty "dirt" taste of the black-eyes. They also had a tinge of a sort of sweet and sour taste. DH and I liked them a lot! Not nearly as good as cream peas, but definitely worth growing and harvesting again.

The seeds were given to me by Wingnut, who obtained them from a SSE member. The packet says: "Prolific vines and pretty 1" lavender-pur...Read Moreple blooms here and there. The 7" pods hold 15-20 small red peas (they look a lot like Texas Fair brand canned field peas from HEB, though don't know if they taste the same.) They don't climb well on their own - tie them on a fence and they'll fill in quickly. give them lots of room."

The SSE member passed along this information with the seeds: "Not sure if this is a cowpea...immature pods have a pleasant slightly jasmine flavor, more mature pods tend to be tough, prolific grower, shared with me by a gardener named Brunner from Brooksville, FL, on whose property they had been growing for over 50 years."

Planted in late June, they took less than a week to germinate; very high germination rate.