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Concept
Vigna
Summary
Vigna is a genus of 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.
Vigna is also commonly confused with the genus Dolichos, but the two differ in stigma structure.
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, including the variety known as the black-eyed pea), and the mung bean (V. radiata). Each of these may be used as a whole bean, a bean paste, or as bean sprouts.
The genus is named after Domenico Vigna, a seventeenth-century Italian botanist and director of the Orto botanico di Pisa.
Root tubers of Vigna species have itionally been used as food by the Indigenous Peoples of the Northern Territory.
The genus Vigna contains at least 90 species, including:
Vigna aconitifolia (Jacq.) Maréchal—moth bean, mat bean, Turkish gram
Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & H. Ohashi—adzuki bean, red bean
Vigna angularis var. angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & H. Ohashi
Vigna angularis var. nipponensis (Ohwi) Ohwi & H. Ohashi
Vigna glabrescens Maréchal et al.
Vigna grandiflora (Prain) Tateishi & Maxted
Vigna hirtella Ridley
Vigna minima (Roxb.) Ohwi & H. Ohashi
Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper—black gram, black lentil, white lentil, urd-bean, urad bean
Vigna mungo var. silvestris Lukoki, Maréchal & Otoul
Vigna nakashimae (Ohwi) Ohwi & H. Ohashi
Vigna nepalensis Tateishi & Maxted
Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek—mung bean, green gram, golden gram, mash bean, green soy, celera-bean, Jerusalem-pea
Vigna radiata var. radiata (L.) Wilczek
Vigna radiata var. sublobata (Roxb.) Verdc.
Official source
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Ontological neighbourhood
Related concepts (7)
Root nodule
Root nodules are found on the roots of plants, primarily legumes, that form a symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Under nitrogen-limiting conditions, capable plants form a symbiotic relationship with a host-specific strain of bacteria known as rhizobia. This process has evolved multiple times within the legumes, as well as in other species found within the Rosid clade. Legume crops include beans, peas, and soybeans.
Cowpea
The cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is an annual herbaceous legume from the genus Vigna. Its tolerance for sandy soil and low rainfall have made it an important crop in the semiarid regions across Africa and Asia. It requires very few inputs, as the plant's root nodules are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen, making it a valuable crop for resource-poor farmers and well-suited to intercropping with other crops. The whole plant is used as forage for animals, with its use as cattle feed likely responsible for its name.
Adzuki bean
Vigna angularis, also known as the adzuki bean (アズキ), azuki bean, aduki bean, red bean, or red mung bean, is an annual vine widely cultivated throughout East Asia for its small (approximately long) bean. The cultivars most familiar in East Asia have a uniform red color, but there are also white, black, gray, and variously mottled varieties. Scientists presume Vigna angularis var. nipponensis is the progenitor. The wild ancestor of cultivated adzuki bean is probably Vigna angularis var.