Butterfly Pea Blue - 5" Pot

Butterfly Pea (Clitoria ternatea), known as Aparajita, is a slender twining legume vine cherished for its vivid deep-blue (sometimes white) flowers. A familiar plant in Indian gardens and folk tradition, its blooms are widely used to brew a striking blue herbal tea and as a natural food colour. The vine grows quickly on fences, trellises and railings with delicate pinnate leaves and, being a legume, helps enrich the soil. It flowers for much of the warm season and into the monsoon. Easy, hardy and undemanding, it thrives in full sun with moderate watering and self-seeds freely for the following year.

Specifications

Care guide

Uses

Ornamental climber for fences and trellises; the edible blue flowers are used for herbal tea and as a natural blue food colour, and the legume enriches the soil.

Growing tips

In India sow soaked seed in the warm season; it grows fast in full sun with little feeding and self-seeds readily, so let a few pods mature for next year's plants.