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Clitoria, commonly known as “pea vine” or “butterfly pea”, is a tropical plant native to temperate areas of the world, including Southeast Asia and Madagascar., where the flowers are often used as a food dye or dipped in batter and deep-fried. Although the seed pod is not edible, we love growing clitoria in gardens and at the farm, allowing it to climb up any unused fence space and produce beautiful eidible bright blue flowers. Butterfly pea vine starts its growth slowly but then ramps up during the hottest months of the year, growing quickly and flowering daily. We harvest the flowers daily for sale to chefs and to dry for teas and we are amazed when we come back to one mature plant day after day and find it full of flowers; the amount of flowers one plant can produce is astounding. Leave a few flowers on your plant to get pollinated and make brown seed pods and you'll have plenty of pea vine seeds for next season. If you don't get around to harvesting all of your seed pods they will burst open at maturity and self seed easily. Butterfly pea vine is in the Fabaceae family and thusly can be used to fix nitrogen. 

In Southeast Asian countries communities have been brewing and drinking butterfly pea vine tea for centuries, and its just now becoming more popular in America. The traditional recipe is to brew the flowers along with lemongrass. The bright blue teas flavor is earthy and woody, similar to green tea, and is prized for being highly medicinal and containing compounds beneficial for healthy skin. 

Another fun aspect of Butterfly pea flowers is their color changing abilities! Brew the flowers in water (or soak in alcohol) for a bright blue coloring effect... add anything acidic (lemon juice, for example) and watch the liquid turn lavender! Mixologists are big fans of this trick for creating "mood ring" style cocktails, and of course for the ability to create wild colored beverages naturally. 

More info on butterfly pea vines medicinal properties here: 
https://www.medicinalplantsanduses.com/clitoria-ternatea-medicinal-uses-images

https://www.majesticherbs.com/clitoria-ternatea-blue-butterfly-pea-flowers-benefits/

Planting and growing tips: Plant seeds 1/4 inch deep in premoistened potting mix in a small pot or seedling tray. Keep cells moist in partial shade until germination, when they can be moved to full sun exposure. Seeds can take 10 days to germinate so be patient. Soaking the seeds for 24 hours before planting can speed up & increase germination success. Clitoria is a tropical sun loving climbing vine so make sure to plant it up against a large fence or give it a large trellis to climb. Picking flowers daily will encourage the plant to produce more flowers daily. Seeds and seed pods aren't edible but if you want the plant to make some so you can save seed just leave a few flowers on the vine to mature into seed pods. Plants can be spaced as close together as 1 plant per foot. 

All seeds were harvested from our urban farm and plant nursery in 2022. Seed packages are hand silkscreened by Gold Teeth Brooklyn, a handmade stationery company based in Los Angeles. 

Seeds have been tested for reliable germination in our nursery at 80 degree daytime temperatures. We recommend using them within 1 year of date of purchase.