Peas are among the oldest cultivated plants in human history, with archaeological evidence of their consumption dating back over 10,000 years to the ancient civilizations of the Middle East and Mediterranean. From the humble garden plots of Neolithic farmers to the sophisticated agricultural systems of modern commercial growers, peas have sustained human populations across continents and centuries, offering a nutritious, versatile, and remarkably adaptable food crop that thrives across a wide range of climates and growing conditions.
The genus Pisum belongs to the legume family Fabaceae, and while only a handful of species exist within the genus, the diversity of cultivated pea varieties is extraordinary. Through thousands of years of selective cultivation and, more recently, deliberate hybridization and breeding programs, growers have developed hundreds of named varieties suited to an astonishing range of culinary uses, growing environments, and aesthetic preferences. Today, peas are grown on every inhabited continent and represent one of the most important legume crops in global agriculture.
Globally, peas are a significant agricultural commodity. World production of dry peas exceeds 14 million tonnes annually, with Canada, Russia, China, and India among the leading producers. The fresh and frozen pea market adds substantially to this figure, with frozen peas alone representing a multi-billion dollar global industry. In the United States, peas rank among the top ten most popular vegetables, and home garden surveys consistently place them among the most commonly grown vegetable crops by amateur gardeners. Their ease of cultivation, rapid maturity, and exceptional nutritional profile — rich in protein, fiber, vitamins C and K, and a range of B vitamins — make them a cornerstone of both commercial agriculture and home food growing worldwide.
Beyond their culinary importance, peas play a vital ecological role in agricultural systems. Like all legumes, they fix atmospheric nitrogen through a symbiotic relationship with Rhizobium bacteria in their root nodules, enriching the soil for subsequent crops and reducing the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. This quality has made peas a valued component of crop rotation systems for millennia and continues to make them an important tool in sustainable agriculture today. The following 48 types represent the remarkable breadth of pea diversity, from ancient heirlooms to modern bred varieties.
Varieties of Peas – Identification
Garden Pea (Pisum sativum)
Garden pea is the classic, quintessential pea — the variety most people picture when the word pea is mentioned. It produces rounded, plump pods containing smooth, round, sweet seeds that are shelled before eating, the pods themselves being too tough and fibrous for consumption. Garden peas have been cultivated in Europe for centuries and remain the most widely grown pea type in home gardens and commercial production worldwide. They prefer cool growing conditions and are typically planted in early spring or autumn, maturing relatively quickly within 60 to 70 days of sowing.
Snow Pea (Pisum sativum var. saccharatum)
Snow peas are flat-podded peas harvested before the seeds inside develop fully, the entire pod being edible, tender, and sweet. The pods are wide, flat, and nearly translucent, with only the faintest suggestion of the developing peas visible through the thin walls. Snow peas are a cornerstone of East and Southeast Asian cuisine, appearing in stir-fries, salads, and noodle dishes across China, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. They have become increasingly popular in Western cooking over the past three decades as interest in Asian culinary traditions has grown substantially.
Sugar Snap Pea (Pisum sativum var. macrocarpon)
Sugar snap peas are a relatively modern development in pea breeding, introduced commercially in 1979 by plant breeder Calvin Lamborn after nearly a decade of development work. They combine the plump, sweet seeds of garden peas with the edible, crisp, sweet pods of snow peas, producing a pea that can be eaten whole or shelled, raw or cooked. Sugar snap peas have become enormously popular since their introduction, now representing a significant share of the fresh pea market in North America and Europe, and they consistently rank among the most popular vegetables for home garden growing.
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Marrowfat Pea (Pisum sativum)
Marrowfat peas are large, starchy peas allowed to dry fully in the pod before harvesting, distinguished by their characteristic wrinkled surface when dried. They are the traditional pea used in British cuisine for making mushy peas — a beloved side dish particularly associated with fish and chips — and are also the pea of choice for making the dried, split pea soups of northern Europe. The United Kingdom is the world’s largest consumer of marrowfat peas, with the British mushy pea tradition representing a genuinely significant national culinary institution.
Field Pea (Pisum sativum var. arvense)
Field peas are a group of pea varieties cultivated primarily for animal feed, green manure, and dried pulse production rather than for fresh eating. They typically produce smaller, less sweet seeds than garden peas and are considerably more robust and tolerant of variable growing conditions. Field peas are a major global crop — Canada is the world’s largest producer and exporter of field peas, producing several million tonnes annually for export to markets across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. They are also increasingly important as a plant protein ingredient in the growing food technology sector.
Petit Pois (Pisum sativum)
Petit pois, meaning “small peas” in French, are a group of very small, exceptionally sweet garden pea varieties harvested at an early stage of development before the sugars have converted to starch. The tiny seeds have a delicate, refined sweetness that distinguishes them from standard garden peas and makes them a prized ingredient in classic French cuisine. Frozen petit pois are among the best-selling frozen vegetable products in the United Kingdom and France, where they are considered a superior everyday vegetable worthy of serving with fine food.
Telephone Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Telephone’)
Telephone is a large-seeded, tall-growing heirloom pea variety dating from the late 19th century, producing long pods containing up to ten large, sweet, flavorful seeds. The plants are vigorous climbers reaching 5 to 6 feet in height, requiring sturdy support. Telephone peas were among the most widely grown garden pea varieties in Britain and North America during the early 20th century and remain popular with heritage vegetable growers and heirloom seed enthusiasts who value their exceptional flavor and generous pod size. They are also known as ‘Alderman’ in the UK.
Lincoln Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Lincoln’)
Lincoln is a classic American heirloom garden pea variety introduced in 1908, producing medium-sized plants bearing well-filled pods of small to medium, exceptionally sweet seeds. It is notable for its heat tolerance compared to many other garden pea varieties, remaining productive in warmer conditions that cause other varieties to deteriorate rapidly. Lincoln peas have been a consistent favorite in American home gardens for over a century and are widely available through heirloom and heritage seed companies. The variety’s combination of reliable performance, heat tolerance, and excellent flavor has given it extraordinary staying power.
Oregon Sugar Pod Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Oregon Sugar Pod’)
Oregon Sugar Pod is one of the most widely grown snow pea varieties in North American home gardens, producing long, flat, tender pods of exceptional quality on vigorous, moderately tall plants. The pods are mild, sweet, and crisp when harvested young, making them excellent for fresh eating, stir-frying, and salad use. Developed at Oregon State University, this variety has good disease resistance, particularly to enation mosaic virus, and performs well across a range of growing conditions. It remains a benchmark snow pea variety against which newer introductions are frequently measured.
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Sugar Ann Snap Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Sugar Ann’)
Sugar Ann is a compact, bush-type sugar snap pea that requires no staking or support, making it exceptionally practical for small gardens, container growing, and gardeners who prefer low-maintenance vegetable growing. It matures early — typically within 56 days of sowing — and produces plump, sweet, crisp pods of excellent quality. Sugar Ann received the All-America Selections award in 1984, recognizing its outstanding performance across a range of North American growing conditions. It remains one of the most popular sugar snap pea varieties for home gardens across the United States and Canada.
Mammoth Melting Sugar Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Mammoth Melting Sugar’)
Mammoth Melting Sugar is a large-podded snow pea heirloom variety producing pods of exceptional size — up to 4 to 5 inches long — that are tender, sweet, and virtually stringless when harvested at the right stage. The plants are tall, vigorous climbers reaching 4 to 5 feet in height and requiring support. This variety has been in cultivation for well over a century and remains popular with home growers who value the generous pod size and the traditional flavor that newer, more uniform commercial varieties sometimes sacrifice in favor of yield and shelf life.
Wando Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Wando’)
Wando is a garden pea variety celebrated for its exceptional heat tolerance — a quality that distinguishes it from most other pea varieties, which deteriorate rapidly in warm weather. It produces medium-sized plants bearing plump, well-filled pods of sweet, flavorful peas and can be planted both in spring for an early crop and in summer for an autumn harvest, a versatility that most garden peas cannot offer. Introduced in 1943, Wando remains a valued variety for gardeners in warmer climates and for those who want to extend the pea-growing season beyond the typically cool spring window.
Kelvedon Wonder Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Kelvedon Wonder’)
Kelvedon Wonder is the most widely sold garden pea variety in the United Kingdom, a compact, early-maturing cultivar bearing well-filled pods of sweet, smooth-seeded peas on dwarf plants that rarely exceed 18 inches in height. Its compact habit makes it ideal for small gardens, and its early maturity — typically 12 to 14 weeks from sowing — suits the British climate well. Named after the village of Kelvedon in Essex, where it was developed, this variety has been a staple of British kitchen garden growing for decades and is trusted by generations of British vegetable gardeners.
Early Onward Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Early Onward’)
Early Onward is a British heirloom pea variety introduced in the 1930s and still widely grown today, producing heavy crops of well-filled, blunt-ended pods on compact, sturdy plants. The seeds are wrinkled, sweet, and flavorful — characteristic of the best maincrop garden peas — and the pods are produced in pairs, making harvesting efficient. It is one of the most reliable and heavy-cropping garden pea varieties available for British conditions and has received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit in recognition of its outstanding garden performance.
Meteor Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Meteor’)
Meteor is one of the most cold-tolerant garden pea varieties available, capable of being sown directly outdoors in late autumn for overwintering and producing an early spring crop before most other pea varieties are even in the ground. The plants are very dwarf — typically only 12 to 15 inches tall — and extremely hardy, with good resistance to the cold, wet conditions of a northern European winter. The pods contain smooth-seeded, sweet peas of good quality. Meteor is particularly valued by British gardeners who want to harvest the earliest possible peas from overwintered sowings.
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Champion of England Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Champion of England’)
Champion of England is a celebrated Victorian-era heirloom pea variety, first introduced in 1843 and once considered the finest flavored of all garden peas. The tall, vigorous plants reach 5 to 6 feet and produce large pods of wrinkled, richly sweet seeds with a depth of flavor that modern commercial varieties rarely match. It is a late-maturing variety, producing its best crop in midsummer, and requires sturdy support for its tall, climbing stems. Heritage vegetable growers and heirloom seed enthusiasts maintain this variety as a living link to Victorian kitchen garden tradition.
Blue Peter Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Blue Peter’)
Blue Peter is a semi-leafless garden pea variety in which many of the leaves have been replaced by tendrils, creating a plant that is more self-supporting than conventional pea varieties and better able to stand upright without staking. The semi-leafless habit also improves air circulation around the plants, reducing susceptibility to fungal diseases such as powdery mildew. The pods contain sweet, high-quality peas and are produced in good quantities. Semi-leafless varieties like Blue Peter are now widely used in commercial pea production because their improved standing ability suits mechanical harvesting.
Alderman Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Alderman’)
Alderman — also known as Telephone — is a classic tall heirloom garden pea variety producing some of the longest pods of any pea variety, each containing up to ten large, sweet, rich-flavored seeds. The plants are tall, vigorous climbers that were a Victorian and Edwardian kitchen garden staple, valued for their generous yield and outstanding flavor. Growing to 5 to 6 feet in height, Alderman requires substantial support but rewards the effort with heavy, extended harvests of premium-quality peas. It remains widely available through heritage and heirloom seed suppliers and is valued by serious kitchen gardeners.
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Misty Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Misty’)
Misty is a modern, high-yielding garden pea variety developed for both commercial production and home growing, producing compact, sturdy plants bearing large clusters of well-filled pods. It has excellent disease resistance, particularly to powdery mildew — one of the most common and damaging pea diseases — and maintains productivity well even as temperatures rise toward the end of the spring growing season. The seeds are sweet, smooth, and of consistent quality. Misty is one of the most widely recommended modern garden pea varieties by UK horticultural organizations for its reliable, high-quality performance.
Feltham First Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Feltham First’)
Feltham First is a very early, cold-hardy garden pea variety bred specifically for autumn sowing and overwintering under cold, wet British conditions. The plants are compact and sturdy, rarely exceeding 18 inches, and the smooth-seeded peas are sweet and of good quality for an early variety. Named after the town of Feltham in Middlesex, where it was developed, this variety has been a staple of British early-season pea growing for decades. It is typically among the first fresh peas of the year to reach the kitchen, a distinction that has always made the first harvest particularly eagerly anticipated.
Sugar Lace Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Sugar Lace’)
Sugar Lace is a semi-leafless sugar snap pea variety producing plump, sweet, edible-podded peas on compact, self-supporting plants that require little or no staking. The semi-leafless habit creates a neat, tidy plant with good air circulation that is less prone to fungal disease than conventional leafy varieties. The pods are sweet, crisp, and virtually stringless when harvested young. Sugar Lace is valued by both commercial growers and home gardeners for its tidy habit, disease resistance, and the high quality of its sweet, edible pods throughout the harvest period.
Cascadia Snap Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Cascadia’)
Cascadia is a highly regarded sugar snap pea variety developed in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, producing compact, bushy plants bearing plump, sweet, stringless pods of excellent eating quality. It has good disease resistance to powdery mildew and enation mosaic virus, two of the most significant pea diseases in the Pacific Northwest, and performs well in a broad range of climates from cool, wet coastal conditions to warmer, drier inland gardens. It has become one of the most recommended snap pea varieties for home gardens across the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
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Green Arrow Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Green Arrow’)
Green Arrow is a high-yielding garden pea variety producing exceptionally long, straight pods — up to 4 inches — containing eight to eleven peas each, often borne in pairs at each node for easy picking. The plants are moderately tall, reaching around 28 inches, and have good disease resistance to fusarium wilt and powdery mildew. Green Arrow is one of the most widely grown garden pea varieties in the United States, valued equally by commercial growers and home gardeners for its reliable, heavy cropping and the consistent quality of its sweet, well-filled pods.
Hurst Green Shaft Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Hurst Green Shaft’)
Hurst Green Shaft is one of the most highly regarded garden pea varieties in the United Kingdom, producing long, pointed, well-filled pods of exceptionally sweet, rich-flavored wrinkled peas on medium-height plants. It has received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit and is consistently rated among the best-flavored of all garden pea varieties in comparative trials. The pods are borne in pairs for efficient harvesting, and the plants have reasonable disease resistance. Hurst Green Shaft is the benchmark garden pea variety by which many British gardeners measure all others.
Thomas Laxton Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Thomas Laxton’)
Thomas Laxton is a venerable American heirloom pea variety dating from the early 20th century and named in honor of the celebrated English plant breeder Thomas Laxton. It produces medium-tall plants bearing large, well-filled pods of sweet, wrinkled seeds with a rich, old-fashioned pea flavor that many growers consider superior to modern commercial varieties. Thomas Laxton has been in continuous cultivation for over a century and is maintained by heirloom seed organizations and heritage vegetable enthusiasts as an example of pre-industrial vegetable breeding at its finest.
Carouby de Maussane Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Carouby de Maussane’)
Carouby de Maussane is a French heirloom snow pea variety of considerable antiquity, producing very large, flat, purple-tinged pods on tall, attractive plants bearing purple flowers — making it one of the most ornamental of all pea varieties. The large pods are exceptionally sweet and tender when harvested young, before the seeds develop significantly. It is a traditional variety of Provence, where it has been grown for centuries, and is valued as much for the beauty of its purple-flowered climbing habit as for the quality of its pods. It performs well as both a food crop and a decorative climber on fences and pergolas.
Purple Podded Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Purple Podded’)
Purple podded pea is a striking heirloom variety producing deep violet to purple pods on vigorous climbing plants with attractive bicolor purple and white flowers. The seeds inside are green and sweet, like a conventional garden pea, but the dramatic purple pod coloring makes this one of the most ornamentally attractive of all vegetable garden plants. The pods turn green when cooked, so the visual drama is primarily in the fresh, growing state. Purple podded peas have enjoyed a significant revival of interest in recent years as heritage vegetable growing and edible ornamental gardening have grown in popularity.
Golden Sweet Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Golden Sweet’)
Golden Sweet is a beautiful Indian heirloom snow pea producing bright yellow pods on tall, vigorous plants with bicolor purple and pink flowers — a combination of foliage, flower, and pod colors that is among the most ornamentally striking of any vegetable plant. The yellow pods are sweet, tender, and best harvested young, and they add a vivid color note to salads and stir-fries. Golden Sweet is a dual-purpose plant — as valuable for the beauty it brings to the kitchen garden or ornamental vegetable border as for the quality of its edible pods.
Dwarf Grey Sugar Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Dwarf Grey Sugar’)
Dwarf Grey Sugar is one of the oldest snow pea varieties still in cultivation, with records of its growing reaching back to the 18th century. The compact plants rarely exceed 24 to 30 inches in height, bearing attractive bicolor pink and purple flowers above gray-green foliage, followed by flat, sweet, edible pods. It is a vigorous, reliable, and historically significant variety that connects the modern kitchen garden with centuries of pea cultivation tradition. Heritage seed organizations consider it an important variety to maintain as part of the broader effort to preserve vegetable crop genetic diversity.
Spring Blush Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Spring Blush’)
Spring Blush is an ornamental pea variety selected as much for the beauty of its flowers — in soft blush pink and cream — as for the quality of its edible pods. The pods themselves are sweet and tender when harvested young as snow peas or allowed to develop slightly for snap pea use. Spring Blush is a popular choice for potager and edible ornamental gardens where the appearance of the vegetable plot is considered alongside its productivity. The soft flower colors look beautiful against the bright green foliage and are particularly effective when the plants are grown on decorative supports such as willow or hazel wigwams.
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Alaska Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Alaska’)
Alaska is one of the earliest maturing garden pea varieties available, producing its first pods within 50 to 55 days of sowing — a remarkably short season that makes it valuable for gardeners in cold climates with short growing seasons. The seeds are smooth rather than wrinkled, a characteristic associated with early varieties that have not yet converted as much of their sugar to starch. The flavor is good for an early variety, and the plants are compact and manageable at around 24 to 30 inches. Alaska peas are particularly popular in Canada, Alaska, and northern states where the growing season is short.
Bijou Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Bijou’)
Bijou is a very dwarf garden pea variety reaching only 12 to 15 inches in height — one of the most compact of all pea varieties — making it ideal for container growing, window boxes, and small raised beds where taller varieties would be impractical. Despite its diminutive stature, it produces well-filled pods of sweet, good-quality peas in reasonable quantities. Bijou is particularly popular with urban gardeners and those with limited growing space who want the pleasure of home-grown peas without dedicating significant garden area to the crop.
Waverex Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Waverex’)
Waverex is a petit pois variety producing very small, exceptionally sweet seeds in well-filled pods on compact, dwarf plants. It is one of the most widely recommended petit pois varieties for British gardens, valued for the superior sweetness and tenderness of its tiny seeds. The seeds must be harvested at exactly the right stage — when the pods are well-filled but before the seeds begin to convert their sugars to starch — for the best flavor. Waverex has received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit, recognizing its outstanding quality and reliable performance.
Shiraz Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Shiraz’)
Shiraz is a distinctive modern pea variety producing deep purple pods on tall, vigorous plants. Like other purple-podded varieties, the pods turn green during cooking, but the dramatic purple coloring makes freshly harvested plants extraordinarily attractive in the garden. The seeds inside are sweet and of good quality, and the pods can be used as a snow pea when young or allowed to develop for shelling. Shiraz is increasingly popular with gardeners interested in the growing edible ornamentals trend, where the visual appeal of vegetable plants is considered as important as their culinary qualities.
Norli Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Norli’)
Norli is an extremely early-maturing Danish garden pea variety, among the earliest of all to produce harvestable pods — typically within 55 to 60 days of sowing. The dwarf plants reach around 16 to 18 inches and require no support, making this a genuinely low-maintenance variety for early spring cropping. The pods are well-filled with sweet, smooth seeds of good quality for such an early variety. Norli is particularly valued in northern European and Scandinavian gardens where the growing season is short and getting crops in and out of the ground quickly is a practical necessity.
Markana Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Markana’)
Markana is a semi-leafless garden pea variety developed for commercial production but widely adopted by home gardeners for its self-supporting habit, disease resistance, and reliable, heavy cropping. The replacement of many leaves with tendrils creates a plant that clings to its neighbors and to netting or supports with great tenacity, forming a self-supporting mass that stands through wind and rain. The pods are well-filled with sweet, wrinkled seeds, and the overall yield is consistently high. Markana has become one of the most widely grown commercial pea varieties in the United Kingdom.
Terrain Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Terrain’)
Terrain is a modern garden pea variety developed specifically for resistance to fusarium wilt — one of the most damaging soilborne diseases of peas, which can devastate crops in affected soils. For gardeners who have experienced fusarium wilt in previous seasons and have contaminated soil, Terrain provides a valuable means of continuing to grow fresh peas without the crop failures and disappointments associated with susceptible varieties in infected ground. The pods are well-filled with sweet peas of good quality, and the plants have a compact, manageable habit well-suited to home garden use.
Ambassador Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Ambassador’)
Ambassador is a high-yielding maincrop garden pea variety producing heavy crops of long, well-filled pods on medium-height plants with excellent disease resistance to powdery mildew and fusarium wilt. It is a reliable, consistent performer in a wide range of growing conditions and has become a popular choice for both commercial growers and serious home gardeners who prioritize reliability and yield alongside flavor quality. Ambassador has received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit, reflecting its strong performance record across UK garden conditions.
Douce Provence Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Douce Provence’)
Douce Provence is a French heirloom garden pea variety with a history reaching back several centuries in the market gardens of Provence. It produces compact, dwarf plants bearing smooth-seeded pods — smooth seeds being associated with cold tolerance and early sowing — of sweet, good flavor. Douce Provence is particularly valued for autumn sowing in mild climates, as it overwinters well and produces very early spring crops. It is an important variety in the French tradition of kitchen gardening and is widely grown in potager gardens across France and among Francophile vegetable gardeners worldwide.
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Sugar Bon Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Sugar Bon’)
Sugar Bon is a compact, early-maturing sugar snap pea variety producing plump, sweet, edible-podded peas on dwarf plants that require no staking. It matures within 56 days of sowing and produces pods of very good sweetness and crispness. The compact plant habit makes Sugar Bon an excellent choice for container growing, small raised beds, and gardens with limited space. It is one of several dwarf sugar snap pea varieties developed specifically for home garden use where the ease and convenience of no-stake growing is a significant practical advantage.
Striped Telephone Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Striped Telephone’)
Striped Telephone is an ornamental variant of the classic Telephone heirloom variety, producing tall, vigorous plants with the same generous pods and outstanding flavor as the standard form but with the added decorative quality of striped, bicolor seeds. The dried seeds display attractive patterns of green, cream, and tan striping that make them as beautiful in the seed packet as on the plant. Like standard Telephone, the plants are tall climbers producing large pods of exceptionally rich-flavored peas, combining the ornamental appeal of heritage seed with genuine culinary quality.
Canoe Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Canoe’)
Canoe is a modern garden pea variety developed to produce all of its pods at a similar height on the plant and at a similar time of maturity — a characteristic known as concentrated podding that suits both mechanical harvesting in commercial production and single-pick harvesting in the home garden. The pods are long, straight, and well-filled with sweet, high-quality peas, and the plants have good disease resistance. Canoe represents the direction of modern pea breeding, where uniformity and harvesting efficiency are as important as flavor and yield.
Jof Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Jof’)
Jof is a very early, cold-tolerant Danish garden pea variety capable of germinating and establishing in soil temperatures as low as 39°F (4°C) — considerably colder than most pea varieties will tolerate. This exceptional cold tolerance makes it one of the best choices for the earliest possible spring sowings and for autumn sowings in cold climates where overwintering hardiness is critical. The plants are compact and the seeds smooth — reflecting the cold tolerance associated with smooth-seeded types — with acceptable sweetness for an ultra-early variety.
Avola Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Avola’)
Avola is a cold-tolerant, early-maturing garden pea variety recommended for autumn sowing and overwintering in mild to moderate climates. The dwarf, sturdy plants are resistant to the cold, wet conditions of autumn and winter and produce early spring crops of sweet, smooth-seeded peas several weeks ahead of spring-sown varieties. Avola is particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where it is one of the standard recommendations for autumn sowing, and has built a strong reputation among British kitchen gardeners for its reliability, hardiness, and the quality of its early spring harvest.
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Taiga Pea (Pisum sativum ‘Taiga’)
Taiga is a particularly cold-hardy garden pea variety named after the boreal forest biome, reflecting its ability to withstand cold temperatures that would damage less hardy varieties. It is bred for high-latitude growing conditions where frosts can occur well into spring and the growing season is short, and it combines cold hardiness with reasonably good flavor and productivity. Taiga is valued by Canadian, Scandinavian, and northern European gardeners who need robust, cold-tolerant varieties capable of producing reliable crops in challenging climatic conditions with limited growing seasons.
Mangetout (Pisum sativum var. saccharatum)
Mangetout — meaning “eat all” in French — is the broader French and British term for all flat-podded, edible-podded pea varieties in which the entire pod is consumed, encompassing both snow peas and certain sugar snap types. While the term is sometimes used interchangeably with snow pea, mangetout specifically refers to the flat-podded types in European horticultural tradition. Named varieties marketed as mangetout in the UK include ‘Oregon Sugar Pod,’ ‘Delikata,’ and ‘Shiraz,’ and the term appears widely on British seed packets, supermarket labels, and restaurant menus as the standard culinary descriptor for flat, edible-podded peas.
Split Pea (Pisum sativum)
Split peas are not a separate botanical variety but rather dried garden peas — typically marrowfat or field pea varieties — that have been processed by removing the outer skin and splitting the seed in half along its natural seam. The two halves are dried and sold as green or yellow split peas, the color depending on the variety used. Split peas are among the most nutritionally dense and shelf-stable of all legume products, with a dried shelf life of one to two years. They are the basis of split pea soup, a dish found in numerous culinary traditions from Dutch erwtensoep to American ham and split pea soup, and form an important protein source in many cuisines worldwide.