Butterfly Pea

Butterfly pea is a perennial herbaceous vine or creeper of the legume family, named for the Indonesian island of Ternate. Its most striking feature is its vivid deep blue flowers, about 4 centimetres long with light yellow markings, though some varieties have white or pink flowers. The fruits are flat pods holding six to ten seeds. It is grown as an ornamental and as a revegetation species, even on Australian coal mines, and as a legume it fixes nitrogen and improves soil. The blue colour comes from anthocyanins, chiefly ternatins. Its Sanskrit-derived name Shankhupushpam means "conch-shaped flower", and Ayurveda knows it as aparajita. Cyclic peptides from it have insecticidal activity and are used in botanical insecticides.