Plant Listings

Galactia bahamensis Urb.

Common Names: Bahama Milk Pea

Family: Fabaceae

Habit: Galactia bahamensis grows as a climbing or trailing vine becoming woody with age to 2 meters in length. The trifoliate leaves are arranged alternately. The shiny leaflets are to 3 cm in length, oval, with a rounded-retuse apex.

The complete, perfect, zygomorphic flowers are arranged in few flowered racemes. The calyx has 5 fused green petals. The corolla has 5 rose-purple petals, the upper enlarged to form a striated banner and the lower 2 fused to form the keel. There are 10 diadelphous stamens. The ovary is superior and has a single locule. The fruit is a legume at maturity.

Habitat: Galactia bahamensis grows in and along the edges of Dry Broadleaf Evergreen Formation – Shrublands (scrublands) and Dwarf Shrublands near coastal zones.

Distribution: Galactia bahamensis is endemic to the Lucayan Archipelago occurring in the south central and southern island groupings.

Medicinal/Cultural/Economic usage: Galactia bahamensis is not known to be used medicinally in the Lucayan Archipelago.