Southern Peas (Cowpeas)
Vigna unguiculata
Please refer to Southern Pea Cultural Notes for growing information.
Asparagus Beans are the same species as Southern Peas, but are listed separately.
Packet: 14 g (1/2 oz) unless stated (approx. 43-135 seeds, depending on variety) sows 8-22 feet.
See Peas for Snap Peas, Snow Peas, and Shelling (English) Peas.
Bettersnap Southern Pea (Cowpea), 14 g Maturing in 61 days, witness the fruition of Bettersnap, a creation by Richard Fery and Philip Dukes of ARS/USDA in 1994. This remarkable variety, akin to snap peas or snap beans, allows you to savor the young pods. Displaying 9… | ||
Big Red Ripper (Mandy) Southern Pea (Cowpea) [VA and NC heirloom] Good flavored table pea with 10 in. pods containing as many as 18 large peas per pod! Use fresh or dried. Reddish-green pods are borne high and are easy to see in the foliage. Resistant to… | ||
Big Red Ripper, Old Fashioned, 14 g 67 days. There’s a lot of Big Red Ripper strains out there – our Missouri grower likes this one the best, and says it’s got the biggest pods and biggest seeds of any strain that she’s grown! She’s been stewarding… | ||
California Blackeye Southern Pea (Cowpea) 75 days. Large-seeded blackeye pea. 7-9 in. green pods are held well above the foliage for easy picking. 2-3 pods/cluster, semi-vining plants. Creamy-white seeds are light green in shelly stage. Small (14 g) packet has about 115 seeds | ||
Carolina Crowder Southern Pea (Cowpea) 63 days. [Richard Fery and Philip Dukes, ARS/USDA, 1990.]Mississippi Silver-type with beautiful cranberry red pods. Red-brown seeds, great flavor. Semi-bush plants, 7-in. pods. Improved resistance for root-knot nematodes and many other Southern afflictions. Small packet has about 41… | ||
Creel Crowder Southern Pea (Cowpea), 14 g 61 days. [Family heirloom of Cheryl and Garey Hughes, from Garey’s great-uncle R.E. Creel, a truck farmer in Warrior, Alabama in the 1930s.] 6 in. curved pods turn golden yellow when dry, large brown seeds. Semi-vining plants, very productive! Small… | ||
Fast Lady Northern Southern Pea (Cowpea), 14 g OSSI variety 58 days. Carol Deppe selected this small, white lady pea in Oregon to mature fast in the NW’s cool summers, but it handles Southern summers as well! Great for short-season areas. 7-8 in. long, yellow pods are easy… | ||
Florida Conch Southern Pea, 5 g 63 days. [1905. Rare and famous Florida heirloom that came from the West Indies. Thanks to The Utopian Seed Project for seedstock!] Small, tender white seeds cook up nice and creamy. Taste test favorite in TUSP’s 2019 trials! 4-6 in…. | ||
Green Dixie Blackeye Southern Pea (Cowpea) 60 days. [Richard Fery, ARS/USDA, 2000.] Seeds retain their green color even when dry/mature, making this a great canning/freezing variety for that "fresh" look. Sweet, fruity flavor. 8-9 in. light green pods, 1-2 pods/cluster, upright for easy picking. Small packet… | ||
Hardee (US-1136) Southern Pea (Cowpea), 14 g [USDA/ARS, Charleston, SC, 2010; selected from SC heirloom collected in 1992 by J. Powell Smith. Introduced 2017 by SESE.] Tasty red-brown seeds. Vigorous, sprawling/climbing 10-15 ft. vines – as with "Iron and Clay," a great cover crop. A 2006 study… | ||
Hercules Southern Pea (Cowpea) 75 days. [1981, Clemson AES] Large, brown seeds are the biggest we offer. 8-9" pods held upright on bushy plants with short runners. Easy to shell. Small packet has about 44 seeds. | ||
Hog Brain Southern Pea (Cowpea), 14 g 62 days. [Alabama heirloom, from seed sent by Douglas Pitts, whose neighbors grew them when Douglas was a boy. Possibly the best name for a vegetable variety ever, but no one seems to know how it got its name –… | ||
Iron and Clay Southern Pea (Cowpea) [Brought to the U.S. by enslaved Africans before the American Revolution. Clay peas were carried as rations by Confederate soldiers, while both Iron and Clay peas sustained newly freed African-Americans after the Civil War according to George Washington Carver’s 1908… | ||
KnuckleHull-VNR Southern Pea (Cowpea), 14 g 61 days. [Richard Fery, Judy Thies, and A. Graves Gillaspie, ARS/USDA, 2002.] Large brown peas in 6 in. purple pods. Bushy plants. Classic Alabama variety, now updated to add resistance to root-knot nematodes and other soil problems. Small packet has… | ||
Peking Black Southern Pea (Cowpea), 14 g 69 days. [From the Southern Seed Legacy collection via grower Harry Cooksey.] There is a bit of mystery about this variety’s origins. But there is no doubt that it produces an abundance of delicious black crowder- type peas on vigorous… | ||
Pinkeye Purple Hull, Kiawah Southern Pea (Cowpea), 14 g 61 days. [1988, Richard Fery & P.D. Dukes, ARS/USDA. Named for the Native American tribe who welcomed English settlers to Charleston, SC.] Everyone’s favorite Pinkeye Purple Hull, bred to add nematode resistance. 6-8 in. dark purple pods. 2-4 pods/cluster, upright… | ||
Pinkeye Purple Hull, Top Pick Southern Pea 65 days. Popular favorite. An early, heavy yielding, semi-bush variety with good disease resistance. This one’s bred for easier picking – pods are nicely visible above the leaves. Pods contain elongated white peas with purple or pink eyes; pods turn… | ||
Rouge et Noir (Red and Black) Southern Pea (Cowpea), 14 g 63 days. [Heirloom from Washington Parrish, LA.] Similar to Peking Black but earlier. Large seeds are red when fresh, drying to black. Vigorous, semi-vining plants. Food historian William Woys Weaver notes that in Louisiana these peas are often cooked with… | ||
Speckled Graham Southern Pea (Cowpea), 14 g (US-1137)[USDA/ARS, Charleston, SC, 2010; selected from SC heirloom collected in 1992 by J. Powell Smith.] 102 days. Tasty mix of speckled grey and tan seeds. Vigorous, sprawling/climbing 10-15 ft. vines, resistant to root knot nematodes and other Southern afflictions…. | ||
Tohono O’odham (Papago) Southern Pea (Cowpea) 63 days. [SW Native American heirloom.] Highly drought- and heat-tolerant variety often used for summer cover crops. 6-7 in. purple-tinged pods. Earthy- flavored seeds have black and white markings like Holstein cows. (Some seeds have brown coloration too.) Small packet… | ||
Whippoorwill Southern Pea (Cowpea) 72 days. [Brought to the Americas from Africa during the slave trade. Grown by Jefferson at Monticello.] Once the standard for southern peas, this variety is drought-tolerant and will grow in almost all soils. 5 ft. vines produce extended harvests… | ||
White Acre Southern Pea (Cowpea) 62 days. High-yielding heirloom southern pea has superior flavor. Quick early growth and dense foliage reduces much of the need for weeding. 7-8 in. pods, small white seeds, 18-25 peas/pod. Small packet has about 137 seeds. | ||
Zipper Cream Southern Pea (Cowpea) 67 days. [1972, FL AES. Thanks to Bob Bulluck for our seedstock!] Southern favorite. Bushy 2-3 ft. plants bear prolifically. 6-9 in. pods with large, creamy-white seeds, 18- 20 seeds/pod, easy to shell. Unusually, seeds have a taste between English… |
Icon Legend
- Certified Organic by Quality Certification Services
- Heirlooms introduced before 1940
- Varieties well-suited to the Mid-Atlantic & further South
- Seed from small farms in our Seed Grower Network