FABACEAE - Bean or Pea Family
Trees, shrubs, or herbs
Leaves pinnate, palmate,
or trifoliate
Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, wings
in front of standard
Fruit a legume, rarely
a loment
Seed with food reserves in cotyledons
400 genera, 10,000 species, worldwide
Economically important legumes
Glycine - soybean (oil and protein)
Phaseolus - green, kidney
and lima beans
Vigna - cowpea, broad bean
Pisum - pea
Medicago - alfalfa
Trifolium - clover
Arachis - peanuts (fruits mature underground)
Lupinus - bluebonnet
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