Last updated Dec. 20, 2004

Rabbit Pea, also called Goat's-Rue (Tephrosia virginiana)

Blooming June to July in open woods and old fields, the rabbit pea is is lovely enough to make a walker dwadle.

With pink and white or pink and pale yellow flowers bunched at the top, plants stand one to three feet tall.

The love the light, blooming in open woods and fields, mostly where the soil is sandy. It cannot grow in the shade.

This pea is not to be confused with a garden vegetable, for the seeds and roots are poisonous.

The seeds are reported to cause nausea. Seminole Indians are said to have used the rabbit pea root, which contains the insecticide rotenone, to poison fish.

Other folklore speaks of pouring a tea made from the roots on garden plants to kill insects.

Long, thin and tough, the roots are the source of the name "devil's shoestring."

Those long roots also make for drought resistance.

Tephrosia virginiana has been used medicinally (certainly without positive effect) to treat rheumatism, fevers, pulmonary problems, bladder disorders, coughing, hair loss, and reproductive disorders.

This native plant's stems are covered with a kind of silky, silver hair. Like the rest of the plant, the stems attractive enough. Yet they can provoke an allergic reaction.

It was at one time fed goats because it was thought to improve milk prodution, and that earned it the common name "goat's rue." That practice appears to have dried up as knowledge that the plant contains rotenone spread.

Look, but touch at your own risk.

Taxonomic Classification

• Superdivision: Spermatophyta (seed plants)
• Division: Magnoliophyta (flowering plants)
• Class: Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledons)
• Subclass: Rosidae
• Order: Fabales
• Family: Fabaceae (Pea family)
• Genus: Tephrosia Pers. (hoarypea)
• Species: Tephrosia virginiana (L.) Pers. (Virginia tephrosia)
• Common Names: rabbit pea, goat's-rue, devil's shoestring, cat gut, wild sweetpea and Dolly Varden.

References

North Carolina State University's Poisonous Plants of North Carolina page on Tephrosia virginiana.

The USDA Plants Database entry for Tephrosia virginiana.