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Did anybody grow this one?  It did very well here, such an odd pea, pretty pink flowers and all the flowers/pods clustered at the top.  Very strange indeed and delightful.

Have just been shelling the dried peas and I had another surprise.  The photo shows the peas in one pod.  For starters there were only 2 pods with 5 peas, most have 4 or less.  And the colours have just about blown me away.  This was the only pod with peas this colour inside:

The first pea is entirely purple, the second entirely sand coloured (which is the standard colour for this variety), the third pea is sand with a purple stripe and the fourth and fifth are half sand and half purple.

Robert - anybody - have you ever seen anything like it?  Needless to say I will grow the peas from this pod separately to see what will happen.   Any ideas or speculations what might have caused this?

Never seen anything like it. Grow them out and see!

They look stunning  :)

Yes they are a gorgeous pea to grow, a real delight  :)

I grew the Salmon flowered pea in a large pot in the garden.They didn't produce much for me but I managed to harvest a few small pods for next year.
Sorry to be of such little help.

I have seen something similar in beans - inversed and occasionally partly inversed seed coats.  Got a 'learned' reply from a university prof via a contact that with beans this happens as a mutation for that year only, because a tiny fault in the seed colour development just carries on and affects the whole of the seed coat.  From growing out inversed beans I know that they come back normal the next year.

But I have never seen it in peas.  And although both have pods and are somewhat similar to each other, I would not naturally assume that this is the same phenomenon.  Peas are said to be quite susceptible to mutations.  We will see what a grow-out brings  :)

Quite an oddball pea, very old and delightful. 

Quote from: galina on August 24, 2012, 08:22:26
I have seen something similar in beans - inversed and occasionally partly inversed seed coats.  Got a 'learned' reply from a university prof via a contact that with beans this happens as a mutation for that year only, because a tiny fault in the seed colour development just carries on and affects the whole of the seed coat.  From growing out inversed beans I know that they come back normal the next year.

Oh, I'm glad you told that.. last summer one of my beans did give some odd colour combinations..I did keep the 'not so normal' seed separate and now when growing them the plants and developing pods don't  look any different to the 'how-they-should-be' ones.

Quote from: goodlife on August 24, 2012, 10:02:54


Oh, I'm glad you told that.. last summer one of my beans did give some odd colour combinations..I did keep the 'not so normal' seed separate and now when growing them the plants and developing pods don't  look any different to the 'how-they-should-be' ones.

I see this sort of thing with beans:  This photo of commercial pinto beans shows a few inversed seed coats near the bottom of the picture.  These will grow into normal plants with normal beans - not crossed, neither permanently mutated, just a slight malfunction when the seedcoat developed in some beans of one generation.
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/263690143/pinto_bean/showimage.html

I had some 'reverse' peas a few years ago, several pods all with dark peas, some with just one or two darker peas. Pretty but none so striking as your striped ones. I grew a few out the following year, all seeds produced were back to normal. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed your seed patten will be set  :)

Quote from: Jayb on August 24, 2012, 11:41:39
I had some 'reverse' peas a few years ago, several pods all with dark peas, some with just one or two darker peas. Pretty but none so striking as your striped ones. I grew a few out the following year, all seeds produced were back to normal. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed your seed patten will be set  :)

Oh thanks for this!  So seedcoat anomalies do happen with peas generally.  This was the information I was hoping for  :)  Just that it is very rare and not many have seen it (or noticed it), as most peas are eaten before it would show.  Only seedsavers will ever see this anyway  ;)

Quote from: galina on August 24, 2012, 11:57:37
Just that it is very rare and not many have seen it (or noticed it), as most peas are eaten before it would show.  Only seedsavers will ever see this anyway  ;)

A good point and not one I'd given a thought to.
I googled a bit at the time and found a few entries here and there with similar seeds. I think one was Toad's blog, and possibly something on Homegrown Goodness  :-\