Vigna marinaBeach Pea

Vigna marina, the Beach Pea, is a trailing legume of tropical beaches worldwide, running long stems across bare sand and rooting as it goes, with thick glossy trifoliate leaves and small bright yellow pea flowers through the warm months. It grows where the sand is loose, salty and unirrigated.

That is exactly its project role: dune and foreshore stabilisation, saline site revegetation and a first cover on beachfront ground where nothing conventional will establish.

Specifications

• Height0.2 to 0.4 metres as a trailing mat, climbing to 1 to 2 metres where it finds support
• Width2 to 4 metres of trailing spread
• Native toTropical coasts worldwide, on beaches and dunes throughout the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans
• FoliageTrifoliate leaves with thick, glossy, rounded leaflets on trailing stems; evergreen
• Growth rateFast

Conditions

• SoilGrows in pure coastal sand and poor saline soils; needs free drainage
• LightFull sun
• WaterLow; drought-tolerant once established
• ClimateThrives in tropical and subtropical coastal regions

Additional Features

• FlowersSmall bright yellow pea flowers through the warm months
• UsesIdeal for dune and foreshore stabilisation, beachfront ground cover, coastal rehabilitation and saline site revegetation
• SpacingPlant 0.8 to 1.2 metres apart; the running stems close the gaps quickly
• Low MaintenanceRequires no attention once established
• Pest ResistanceGenerally resilient
• Salt ToleranceTolerates salt spray, salt-laden sand and brief seawater inundation
• Drought ToleranceDeep roots carry it through extended dry periods on open sand
• Erosion ControlRunning stems root at the nodes and bind loose sand against wind and wave

Beach Pea is the first cover on raw coastal sand, and it holds the ground long enough for everything else to follow.