Siberian pea shrub

Photo: A. Barra — CC BY 3.0 · source

Survives zone 2 through 7

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

⚠ Honestly: young seeds and pods are edible cooked but bland — an emergency/fallback food and poultry fodder rather than a treat. Cook the seeds (reported to contain the amino-acid analogue L-canavanine; eat in moderation); nitrogen-fixing.

Hardiness

Zone 2–7

Habit

Shrub

Edible part

Seed, Fruit

Ripens

Autumn

Mature size

Deciduous shrub/small tree 2–6 m

Light

Full sun (very light-demanding)

Soil pH

6.0–7.5 (nitrogen-fixing; tolerates poor soil)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Siberia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and northern China — the steppe and forest-steppe margin, which is where the extraordinary cold hardiness (to zone 2) and wind tolerance come from. Long planted across the North American prairies as a shelterbelt.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

3–5 yrs

Growth speed

Fast — 30–60 cm a year, and it establishes on ground that defeats most shrubs

Spacing

200 cm (79 in) apart — about 4 m² (43 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, pinnate, 5–10 cm, with 8–12 small oval bright-green leaflets and a pair of small spines at the base of each leaf stalk — a pea-family leaf, light and airy.

Root system

Deep and wide-spreading with nitrogen-fixing rhizobial nodules, and suckering modestly. It holds dry, poor, exposed ground and thin alkaline prairie soil where little else will grow, which is its whole purpose as a shelterbelt plant.

Fruit description

Slender pea pods 3–5 cm ripening in summer, splitting explosively and flinging the seed. ⚠ Honestly assessed: the young pods and the seeds are edible cooked but bland and small — a fallback food and a good poultry and pigeon feed rather than something to plant for the table. Cook them; do not eat raw.

Propagation

Seed after a hot-water soak or brief scarification — quick and reliable. Suckers can be lifted; cuttings are harder. Named weeping and cut-leaf forms are grafted onto seedling stems.

Pollination

Insect-pollinated, fragrant yellow flowers; nitrogen-fixing

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.