Leguminous Vegetable Cultivation and Seed Production S ...

Depending upon the country some of the legumes are included in the field crops category,
others are included under horticultural crops, while still others are included in the oilseeds crop
group. However, in many of the monographs dealing with vegetable legumes published in
different countries almost all these crops are treated as vegetable crops.
Leguminous vegetables are used as fresh pod, immature seed and mature dry seed, and majority of
these vegetables are also canned and frozen for the market. Some of the legume seeds are sprouted
and are popular in many Asian countries. any legumes are also processed.
In international trade leguminous vegetables play an important role. Dry seeds, canned and
frozen foods, and processed food products from leguminous vegetables enter the international
market where they are important commodities for foreign exchange.
Botany
Legumes are dicotyledonous annuals or perennials. There are about 480 genera and more
than 12,000 species in the family Leguminosae (commonly called the pea family). As a group they
contain at least 28 different vegetable crops belonging to 18 genera. Almost all the vegetable crops
belong to the subfamily Papilionaceae.
When the seeds germinate, in some legumes, the cotyledons remain inside the soil due to
limited elongation of the hypocotyl. Such germination is referred to as hypogeal germination.
Example: peas, Pisum sativuin L. In other instances, as in the case of soybean (Glycine max L.
(Merr.) and common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) the cotyledons are pushed above the soil surface
by the rapid elongation and growth of the hypocotyl. Such germination is called epigeal
germination.
2