Samsamping/Butterfly Pea

20131213_090437Samsamping – Butterfly pea (Scientific name – clitoria ternate)

I’m a member of a community garden and as most gardeners I’m curious of what other gardeners have in their plot. This blue flowers caught my attention and I asked for some seeds because I love blue flowers. I asked for the name of the plant but my friend said that a Filipino friend gave it to him and that the beans is supposed to be edible.  I never seen or heard of this plant when I was growing up in the Philippines so I didn’t  have a clue either. I posted the flower in Facebook and asked anybody who knows the name and somebody responded it is called “samsamping” an Ilocano word. I don’t know if there is a Tagalog word for it.

I like this “samsamping” plant.  It is easy to grow.  Right now my plant is full of beautiful blue flowers and some have already formed into beans. I don’t know if I like to eat the beans but I sure love the flowers and the butterflies and bees love them too.  The beans are green and look just like the jicama seeds only thinner.

At least now I know what I will call these amazing blue flowers.

 

Similar Posts

  • Cucumber Prt 3

    This are the cucumber seedlings after my last week’s blog. They developed their true leaves and on their way. I like cucumbers in salad. I also like it with seasoned vinegar and red onion as a side dish for fish or any meat entrees. I wll be waiting impatiently for the fruits to come in…

  • Cucumber Flowers

    After a week or so, I’ve been seeing cucumber flowers. I can’t wait to see what it looks like. That’s why it’s important that you label your seedlings to know what variety it is. In this case, I don’t know because a friend of mine just gave me the seeds. Anyways, pollination is important, so…

  • Gourd/Upo

    Upo is one of my favorite vegetables. I practically grow eating this vegetable. My mom has a small garden in our yard and she always manage to grow upo by building a trellis for it to cling to. The trellis we call “palapa” is made of bamboo. It is build with four bamboo poles that…

  • Banana Heart

    Banana – (Musaceae) is by far the most widely known fruit in the world and the most cultivated.  The varieties of banana is so wide it is divided into 10 groups from the cavendish type to cooking bananas called plantains but the Philippines also have the cooking banana variety we call “saba” or “popo’ulu” in…

  • Watercress

    Watercress is in the family of Brassicas like radish and mustard relating to their peppery flavor. It closely resembles the taste of nasturtiums and the name is the same but they are actually distant relatives and they are easy to grow. Watercress is not available in the Philippines when I was growing up so I…

  • Bittermelon/Ampalaya

    The bittermelon plant in my garden really took off so fast because of the recent rains that we had. I actually had been gathering the fruits as well as the leaves which we use in soups like mung bean soup and chicken tinola which locals call Chicken Paraya. I have done a little research on…