1. About 20 years ago I found some narrow-leaved everlasting pea, Lathyrus sylvestris, on the local railway embankment. I planted the seed along the roadside on my farm and now I have a mile of them. People come from miles just to see them when in flower in the first week in August.
Some local people call them pharaoh’s peas. The story is that a person from the nearby village of Weebly went to Egypt and brought home some seeds which were said to come from a royal tomb in a pyramid [Rushton, Northamptonshire, July 1985; site visited August 1992 and plant identified as broad-leaved everlasting pea, Lathyrus latifolius].

Images:  main, cultivated, The Temple, City of London, July 2014; inset, Rushton site, 14 August 2015.