Subtribe Phaseolinae Higher classification Legumes | Scientific name Vigna Rank Genus | |
Lower classifications Cowpea, Mung bean, Black gram, Adzuki bean, Vigna subterranea | ||
Vigna mungo black gram
Vigna is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. It includes some well-known cultivated species, including many types of beans. Some are former members of the genus Phaseolus. According to Hortus Third, Vigna differs from Phaseolus in biochemistry and pollen structure, and in details of the style and stipules.
Contents
Vigna are herbs or occasionally subshrubs. The leaves are pinnate, divided into 3 leaflets. The inflorescence is a raceme of yellow, blue, or purple pea flowers. The fruit is a legume pod of varying shape containing seeds.
Familiar food species include the adzuki bean (V. angularis), the black gram (V. mungo), the cowpea (V. unguiculata), and the mung bean (V. radiata), which is used as a whole bean, a bean paste, or as bean sprouts.
The genus is named after es:Domenico Vigna, a seventeenth-century Italian botanist and director of the Orto botanico di Pisa.
Yardlong bean vigna unguiculata ssp sesquipedalis
Selected species
The genus Vigna contains at least 90 species, including: