Galactia

Galactia
Galactia striata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Tribe: Diocleae
Genus: Galactia
P.Browne (1756)
Species

About 100. See text.

Synonyms
  • Galaction St.-Lag. (1880)
  • Heterocarpaea Scheele (1848)
  • Leucodyction Dalzell (1850)
  • Odonia Bertol. (1822)
  • Sweetia DC. (1825), nom. rej.

Galactia is a genus of plants in the legume family (Fabaceae). It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae and tribe Diocleae They do not have an unambiguous common name, being commonly called milk peas, beach peas or wild peas. They are perennial herbs or subshrubs with prostrate, climbing, or erect forms.

The genus contains 99 species which range through the Americas from New York and Arizona to northern Argentina, in tropical Africa and Madagascar, in south and southeast Asia, southern China, and Japan, and in the Philippines, eastern Indonesia, New Guinea, and Australia.

Typical habitats include seasonally-dry tropical and subtropical forest margins, thickets, woodlands, wooded grasslands, grasslands, and rocky shrublands.