Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus)
Patricia Henderson
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523
Corresponding author<EMAIL_ADDRESS><EMAIL_ADDRESS>OUTLINE
- Overview
- History
- Production and use
- Conservation and breeding
- Neurolathyrism
- References
- Chapter information
1. OVERVIEW
Lathyrus sativus, commonly referred to as grass pea, is a hardy legume with significant nutritional and stress-adaptive traits. Grass peas are well suited to a range of climate and soil types and can thrive in both dry and waterlogged conditions. While underutilized, this species has gained attention recently due to its tolerance of a variety of abiotic stresses. Lathyrus sativus plants are short, bushy diploid annuals (2n=14), with blue, pink, or white flowers and green seedpods. Their seedpods are curved and flat and contain 3 to 5 white or grey-brown seeds (Kumar et al., 2013).
To learn more about the importance of grass pea, check out this article and short video from Crop Trust.
2. HISTORY
As one of the earliest domesticated crops, grass peas unsurprisingly have a long history of cultivation. Seeds have been identified in Balkan excavations as early as 8000 BCE (Lambein et al., 2019). There are nearly 160 annual and perennial species within the genus Lathyrus that are distributed throughout temperate climates around the globe (Lambein et al., 2019). Kumar et al. (2013) provide a review of phylogenetic relationships among Lathyrus species.
Grass peas are most commonly found in Europe, South and West Asia, North Africa, and Ethiopia (Soren et al., 2015). There is some debate on the crop’s origin, some arguing that it stems from Central Asia, others indicating the Mediterranean region (Kumar et al., 2013). The exact origin of this plant is uncertain due to its long history of cultivation and the lack of marked differences in morphology between wild and domesticated populations. Likely, this overlap of wild and domestic types is due to the use of grass peas as both forage and grain legume crops within areas where it is native (Kumar et al., 2013). The crop’s spread across Europe, Africa, and South Asia occurred through migration and merchant trading primarily during the Bronze Age (roughly 3300 to 1200 BCE) (Kumar et al., 2013). Grass pea germplasm falls broadly into two groups, Asian and Mediterranean, having small and large seeds, respectively (Lambein et al., 2019).
3. PRODUCTION AND USE
While used mainly as food, forage, and livestock feed, grass pea can also be grown as an ornamental and used medicinally (Wiraguna et al., 2020). The most prominent grass pea production regions are in South Asia and East Africa, specifically Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Ethiopia (Lambein et al., 2019). Total production of grass pea is estimated at 1.2 million tons on 1.5 million hectares. Ethiopian production recently increased in total land area as well as amount harvested (Lambein et al., 2019). Bangladesh also followed this trend through the expansion of its tot