ˈpea-flower
a. The flower or blossom of the pea, or any large papilionaceous flower resembling this. b. Name for several West Indian leguminous plants having such flowers, as Vilmorinia multiflora, and species of Centrosema and Clitoria.
| 1825 Greenhouse Comp. I. 90 Elegant orange-coloured pea-flowers, on singular Australasian evergreen shrubs. 1884 Miller Plant-n., Pea-flower, Vilmorin's Purple, Vilmorinia multiflora. 1946 D. C. Peattie Road of Naturalist i. 20 In the innocent phase of spring there had bloomed an astragalus, very like a lupine, but straggling, crazy, clouded, its pea flowers sickly pink. 1977 M. Allan Darwin & his Flowers iv. 78 He found six adesmias-shrubs with pea⁓flowers. |
Hence ˈpea-flowered a., having papilionaceous flowers like those of the pea.
| 1866 Treas. Bot. 299 Clitoria, a large genus of pea-flowered plants. |