Centrosema virginianum(L.) Benth.

butterfly pea

WFO wfo-0000179164 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h

Centrosema virginianum, photographed by Joseph Aubert
fig. a Joseph Aubert, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-04 / obs. 204558857
Centrosema virginianum, photographed by Steve Taylor
fig. b Steve Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205126926
Centrosema virginianum, photographed by Joseph Aubert
fig. c Joseph Aubert, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204563135
Centrosema virginianum, photographed by Amber M. King
fig. d Amber M. King, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205598605
Centrosema virginianum, photographed by Lauren McLaurin
fig. e Lauren McLaurin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200476037
Centrosema virginianum, photographed by Fernando Sessegolo
fig. f Fernando Sessegolo, CC0 1.0 / obs. 179161736
Centrosema virginianum, photographed by Nicolas Olejnik
fig. g Nicolas Olejnik, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 177138622
Centrosema virginianum, photographed by Brian Oakes Haiti Hunter
fig. h Brian Oakes Haiti Hunter, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 180099909

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Flowering n = 2,585 observations

Peak flowering in Aug, from 2,585 community-annotated observations worldwide. This is a global aggregate, not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres, and citizen-science records cluster near cities, at weekends, and in spring. Where a species has fewer than 30 annotated records we do not draw this chart at all.

Also published as 38 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Bradburya biflora (Mart. ex Benth.) Kuntze
  • Bradburya conjugata (Lehm.) Kuntze
  • Bradburya decumbens (Mart. ex Benth.) Kuntze
  • Bradburya erecta Raf.
  • Bradburya virginiana (L.) Kuntze
  • Bradburya virginiana var. angustifolia (DC.) Kuntze
  • Bradburya virginiana var. flavida Kuntze
  • Centrosema biflorum Mart. ex Benth.
  • Centrosema conjugatum (Lehm.) Steud.
  • Centrosema decumbens Mart. ex Benth.
  • Centrosema decumbens C.Mart.
  • Centrosema micranthum Steud.
  • Centrosema scabriusculum Hassk.
  • Centrosema virginiana (L.) Benth.
  • Centrosema virginianum subsp. angustifolium (Griseb.) Hadač
  • Centrosema virginianum var. angustifolium Griseb.
  • Centrosema virginianum var. ellipticum (DC.) Fernald
  • Centrosema virginianum var. genuinum Stehlé & Quentin
  • Centrosema virginianum var. virginianum
  • Clitoria alabamensis Bertol.
  • Clitoria amoena Roth
  • Clitoria calcarigera Salisb.
  • Clitoria gemina Vell.
  • Clitoria gladiata Schrank

and 14 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice, no toxicity claim and no native range, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.