Clitoria ternatea 

Clitoria ternatea L.  var. ternatea                                        

Family     :   Fabaceae/leguminosae 

Common Name : ശംഖുപുഷ്പം(Mal)

                                 Butterfly pea (Eng)

   अपराजिता (Hin)                        

This wonderful twining plant generously bears quite large flowers (about 2" across) which are a beautiful shade of vivid cobalt blue with a white throat. The flowers are presented upside down - the "keel" petal appears on the top rather than the underside. The butterfly pea is a beautiful vine that can climb to 9 feet in a hot summer. The flowers are produced in late summer, deep blue with a yellow to white pattern in the center of the lower petal. A member of the pea family, elongated peas are produced and seeds can be collected for sowing the following year. The botanical name comes from the resemblance to intimate parts of the human anatomy 

Slender twiners. Leaves odd-pinnate; leaflets 5-7, 2.2-4.5 x 1.5-2.8 cm, broadly elliptic, ovate or obovate, base cuneate to rounded, apex obtuse to rounded, pubescent; stipules c. 4 mm long, ovate-lanceolate, persistent. Flowers solitary, axillary; pedicels to 1 cm long; bracts 2-3 mm long, persistent; bracteoles foliaceous, auricled. Calyx tube 5-7 mm long, pubescent; lobes acuminate. Petals blue or white, clawed; standard 3.5-4.3 cm long, obovate, emarginate; wings oblong, falcate, adnate to keel; keels obovate, incurved. Stamens diadelphous (9+1); filaments unequal. Ovary c. 7 mm long, pubescent; style curved, apex dilated. Pod 5-9 x 0.6-0.9 cm, linear, compressed, apically beaked; seeds many, 5-7 mm long, compressed, reniform, black.