Full of Beans

The pea and bean family consist of leguminous plants. The word ‘legume’ refers to their characteristic fruit: a pod that usually splits as it dries out to release round or bean-shaped seeds, which are often edible and then known collectively as ‘pulses’. These have nourished people around the world for thousands of years and include such crops as chickpeas, lentils and beans.

Flowers in the family have five petals typically arranged like a sweet pea, with two ‘wing’ petals, an upright ‘standard’ petal and two lower petals more or less fused to form a ‘keel’. Flowers are often grouped into showy inflorescences that may be upright, as in a lupin, or may