Small's Milkpea

This plant is a creeping or climbing vine with gray-haired stems reaching up to 2 meters long. The shaggy hairs on the stem nodes may be up to 8 millimeters long. Each leaf is compound, made up of three hairy leaflets that measure 1 to 2 centimeters long. The inflorescence produces 1 to 5 pea flowers which are just over a centimeter long and pink to lavender in color. The flowers are pollinated by the Cassius blue butterfly (Leptotes cassius theonus) and other insects. The fruit is a hairy legume pod 3 or 4 centimeters long and a few millimeters wide.

This species grows in Florida's pine rockland habitat, an increasingly rare type of ecosystem dominated by the slash pine (Pinus elliottii). The trees are narrow and the canopy is open, providing sunlight to the understory. Among the pines are over 100 species of trees, including many palms, and a diverse array of herbs, including many rare and endemic species. The habitat is maintained by a natural fire regime of periodic wildfire which prevents the succession of the pine rockland to a hammock ecosystem. Fire clears overgrown tall and woody vegetation to maintain the characteristic open canopy. Less than 2% of the pine rocklands of Florida remain today.