Pea Leaves/Foliage (Pousse pois mange tout)

[B. Copping]

As you can see from the photos, these are being grown commercially (in Mexico).
I don't see these very often in the grocery store, so I snagged a bag to try them out.
I like versatility in vegtables!

Very large stipules, the leaflets have been removed.
Looks like a fasciated stem.

Does anyone here know what variety this could be?
Or search terms to use to find more info?

Edit: attachment issues. Sigh. (LOL)

[galina gardiner]

This is a leaf pea.  https://vermehrungsgarten.de/node/520

[AndrewB]

Wow! VERY cool!

At first I thought the thread was going to be about the new Calvin Lamborn Snap-Greens with both tl / af genes. These are just as cool!

No idea on the variety name, but any variety with both p / v genes for low fiber in the pod would be a good candidate for this. Plants with lower fiber in the pods also have lower fiber in the leaves.

The most tender leaved peas in my collection are my "large podded" (A mix of 'Green Beauty', 'Carouby de Maussane', and 'Bijou'). These are the preferred variety by the leaf cutter bees, second favorite is Dwarf Gray Sugar.

You are correct that the stems of these seem to be fasciated. Considering the pink flowers it looks like it was probably bred from Salmon-Flowered or Rosakrone. So this pea has three recessive genes: p / v / & fas or fa (but probably not both)

A possible replicating cross: [Green Beauty x Salmon-Flowered].

Have you thought about trying to place them in a flower vase and coaxing them to stay alive long enough to produce pods and seeds? You might need that special additive that helps keep cut flowers alive longer, but I think it might be possible. I had a pea plant that was nibbled off by a rabbit low to the ground. It became a flower in a vase and lived long enough to produce pods with me changing the water everyday. Nearly made it to seed, but not quite i think.

If you bury them in soil you  might be able to coax roots to start so the plant could be saved that way as well. I think worth a try!

Thanks for sharing! Now another pea use i want to try!

[Steph S]

I tried a search for "Tao Mei" pea seeds (as shown in your pic), and found another name for pea leaves in Chinese cooking is Dòu miáo.
https://thewoksoflife.com/chinese-ingredients-glossary/chinese-vegetables-asian-leafy-greens/
Sounds to me like you would find some kind of pea leaf varieties in China, since they are a traditional vegetable there.

Searching for Dòu miáo pea seeds, the leaf stage is called "da dou miao" from this post excerpt:

"Pea shoots = Pea vines = Dou miao = Pisum sativum
In Chinese, the two types are distinguished by calling them "large'' and "small'': da dou miao and shao dou miao. Da dou miao, the large shoots, are also sometimes called wan, (late) because they come from the mature pea plant.... "
https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1729579/what-is-da-dou-miao-and-xiao-dou-miao

Not seeing any detail on varieties, but seems as though the same varieties are grown for small shoots or large leafy shoots.  The leaf stage is said to be more tender than the shoot.

The selection of peas for shoots looks pretty plain and dreary:  "field pea" or Dwarf Gray Sugar. 
https://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetables/shoots/field-pea-shoot-seed-3161S.html
More at Kitazawa, but mostly named by seed coat: maple, dun, green, yellow and Arvika.  Again the sprout peas are identified as 'field peas' and cover crops.
https://kitazawaseed.com/collections/pea

I have one from Europe called "Serge" which I haven't grown out yet.  On the list for this season.

[Ocimum]

This opens a whole new series of possibilities for fresh green in spring when using winter hardy varieties!

[B. Copping]

They passed the taste test with flying colours!!!
Just steamed, nothing added. (Now that I know what the base flavour is, I can get creative.)

I have Dwarf Grey Sugar, but haven't tasted the leaves yet.
Dwarf Grey Sugar leaves (stipules) are smaller than the grocery store variety I just ate.

I think my next request from JIC will include lines for "lat" and "ele1".

[gmuller]

Joy Larkcom's 'Oriental Vegetables - the complete guide for the gardening cook' includes the following info "Cantonese Dau miu, Japanese Tohbyo. ...Dwarf Grey Sugar and Usui are among those recommended for shoot production."

[AndrewB]

I think my next request from JIC will include lines for "lat" and "ele1".

Great idea! Let me know how that goes and whether you get anything interesting.

I find the fact that ele1 says it also increases pod width very interesting. Wonder what ele1 x lt would do...

https://www.seedstor.ac.uk/search-infoaccession.php?idPlant=24240
https://www.seedstor.ac.uk/search-infoaccession.php?idPlant=26995

JI0840
JI3608

Like I said before, Green Beauty & Carouby de M. or Dwarf Gray Sugar are worth exploring because they have the low fiber genes for pp and vv. If they have pods that "pulverize to dust" then the plant leaves will also have less fiber. These are the only peas in my garden that suffer when we get hail storms. And because the leaves are extra tender the leaf cutter bees find them a favorite too. Very cool though, I never thought about harvesting them for the leaves.

[Diane Whitehead]

another one - described by a UK site:  None of the other companies that sell this mention the leaves.

Opal Creek
Climbing to a magical 6' tall and producing pastel lemon pods which hold their colour better in cooler temperatures. This unique and tasty snap pea also has very sweet and edible leaves and is ideal for growing as baby pea-sprouts in the greenhouse.

[Greenie DeS]

Pea leaves are mostly great, especially when young. I've only ever eaten snap pea greens, but it's part of my normal harvest from any variety I'm growing anyhow and I've never noticed off flavours.

Also of interest may be the Parsley Pea, that has tendrils (not particularly parsley-flavoured) designed for eating.

[Diane Whitehead]

Peace Seedlings  http://peaceseedlingsseeds.blogspot.com   has also bred a number of hyper-tendril peas.

Most are climbers, but one is a bush.  Oregon Hyper-tendril Snow Bush

and a red one

Ruby Beauty HT Snow Vine     
After 8 years of breeding and selecting we finally are ready to offer our "red snow pea"!   Gourgeous vining plants with yellow and red blushed hyper-tendrils(HT) make delicious red pods turning light burgundy.  On a sunny spring day the young pods glow like stained glass in the garden, a sight to behold!

[AndrewB]

Yes, the new Lamborn bred 'Petite Snap-Greens' are a snap parsley pea with dwarf growth. I imagine being a snap pea they have both the pp and vv fiberless genes. I grew them once but apparently didn't save seeds.

I imagine you can have 3 types of edible foliage peas:

parsley types (JI0114 has "very wrinkled" seeds)
large leaf / fasciated types
or hyper-tendril / semi-leafless types

Ruby Beauty is the first commercially introduced red-podded pea. It looks nice but does not taste that good. I'm still working on my red-podded pea because i think i can make a better one! Hoping this is the year!!

Peace Seedlings just released two other new peas: Ruby Crescent and Opal Crescent. I now have seeds, but not sure if i have the room to trial them. Hopefully Opal Crescent is an improvement over the old Opal Creek. I imagine it is.

Anyone know what genes might code for tasty foliage genes other than the fiberless ones?

[B. Copping]

Tasty foliage genes...don't know of any specifically.
I haven't jumped into that rabbit hole yet.

If one were to test pleiotropic effects, "Garden Sweet" might be a good variety to evaluate.
(Reported to be 25% sweeter)

@Andrew I think "crd" also increases leaf size, but changes the flower structure. This could be of interest to you?

"uni<tac" could be interesting to work with.
It could eliminate the practice of removing the leaflets (the leaflets are too fiberous?)

When I last grew "Joni's Taxi" (2019) I had difficulty with the groundhogs.
They loved it so much they ate the plants three times, "Lincoln" once, and didn't bother the other pea varieties in my garden...
I think I will try some of the foliage when I next grow it.

[B. Copping]

I imagine you can have 3 types of edible foliage peas:

parsley types (JI0114 has "very wrinkled" seeds)
large leaf / fasciated types
or hyper-tendril / semi-leafless types

And they aren't mutually exclusive. 😁

I realize that anthocyanin tastes bitter to some people (the look on a fellow gardener's face when she tasted a purple pod I gave her was VERY educational) so it should probably be avoided.
(Purples and greens were segregating in that planting. I couldn't taste any difference between the purples and greens, but that is MY genetics skewing a taste evaluation. 😁)

I wonder what effect "cov" would have?

[Steph S]

Here is an Asian source for pea shoots seeds:

https://asiangarden2table.com/product/pea-shoots/

25 days to first pick!  That's tempting to me...