chaparral pea

American  

noun

1. a spiny bush, Pickeringia montana, of the legume family, having large purple flowers and sometimes forming dense thickets in the Pacific coast regions of the United States.

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chaparral pea British  

noun

1. a thorny leguminous Californian shrub, Pickeringia montana, with reddish-purple showy flowers

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Etymology

Origin of chaparral pea

An Americanism dating back to 1905–10

Example Sentences

Upon wild mountain-slopes where are heard the fluting notes of a certain shy bird that rarely comes near habitations, the chaparral pea often makes dense, impenetrable thickets.

From The Wild Flowers of California: Their Names, Haunts, and Habits by Parsons, Mary Elizabeth