Quail-Friendly Plants of the Midwest
Milkpea
- Galactia volubilis
Forb
Leaves and stems are hairy. Vining growth often causes milk pea to climb other plants.
Scott Sudkamp, Missouri Department of Conservation

Milkpea seedpods are hairy, 2 to 2-1/2 inches long.
©Ted Bodner, USDA-NRCS Plants Database

Leaflets are three-lobed, and flowers are pink to lavender.
©Tom Barnes, University of Kentucky

Where available, seeds are readily consumed by bobwhites and other birds and small mammals.
Tracey Slotta, USDA-NRCS Plants Database
Description
This herbaceous legume demonstrates a hairy surface on the top of the trilobed leaf; the stems are also hairy. Milkpea can be found throughout most of the southern Midwest on rocky glades and open woods. Seedpods are about 2-1/2 inches long.
Bloom period
July to September
Use by bobwhites
Milkpea seeds are readily eaten by bobwhites. They may serve as a component of brood cover as well.
Contents
- How to use this guide
- Selected resources for bobwhite quail management
- Glossary
- Alfalfa
- American plum
- Barnyardgrass
- Beggar's lice
- Bidens
- Big bluestem
- Briars
- Broomsedge
- Crab grass
- Croton
- Dogwoods, shrub
- Eastern red cedar
- Elderberry, common
- False indigo
- Flowering spurge
- Foxtail
- Giant ragweed
- Goat's rue
- Grapes, wild
- Greenbrier
- Hairy lespedeza
- Hazelnut
- Huckleberry
- Illinois bundleflower
- Indian grass
- Jewelweed
- Lambsquarters
- Lespdeza, annual/Korean
- Little bluestem
- Milkpea
- Oaks
- Orchard grass
- Osage orange
- Panic grasses
- Partridge pea
- Paspalums
- Pigweed
- Poison ivy
- Pokeweed
- Possum haw
- Ragweed, common
- Roundhead lespedeza
- Sassafras
- Sensitive brier
- Sideoats grama
- Slender lespedeza
- Smartweed
- Sumacs
- Sunflower
- Switch grass
- Three-seeded mercury
- Timothy
- Trailing lespedezas
- Viburnum
- Wild bean
- Wild geranium
- Acknowledgments
- Photo credits
Related programs
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