the.com/sweet pea

a flower that smells like heaven and would happily poison you for lunch.

means A climbing garden plant (Lathyrus odoratus) prized for its delicate, intensely fragrant flowers — and, fittingly, a tender pet name for someone you adore.

from From plain English 'sweet' plus 'pea,' the plant being a fragrant member of the legume family, kin to the edible pea (Pisum). The 'pea' lineage runs back through Middle English 'pese' to Latin 'pisum,' borrowed from Greek 'pison.' The flower's botanical name, Lathyrus odoratus, simply means 'fragrant pea' — odoratus being Latin for 'scented.' The affectionate human sense bloomed later, as sweet names for sweethearts tend to do.

deadly seeds
Seeds cause lathyrism, a paralyzing nerve disorder
royal obsession
Edwardian England held entire shows for them
not edible
Unrelated to the pea you eat
scent champion
Bred chiefly for one of nature's best perfumes
name origin
Sicilian monk first cultivated it in 1699
for instance

sweet pea flower — lathyrus odoratus, ornamental climbing plant native to sicily with fragrant colorful blooms

popeye's sweet pea — infant character in popeye comics and cartoons, popeye's adopted daughter introduced in 1931

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