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cowpea

 
Dictionary: cow·pea   (kou'pē') pronunciation
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n. In both senses also called black-eyed pea, catjang.
  1. An annual African plant (Vigna unguiculata) in the pea family, widely cultivated in warm regions for food, forage, and soil improvement.
  2. An edible seed of this plant.

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: cowpea
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Any of the cultivated forms of the annual legume Vigna unguiculata. The plants are believed to be native to India and the Middle East but in early times were cultivated in China. The compound leaves have three leaflets. The white, purple, or pale-yellow flowers usually grow in twos or threes at the ends of long stalks. The pods are long and cylindrical. In the southern U.S. the cowpea is grown extensively as a hay crop, as a cover or green-manure crop, or for the edible beans.

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Sci-Tech Encyclopedia: Cowpea
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The legume Vigna unguiculata ssp. unguiculata, also called southern pea, blackeye pea, or blackeye bean (United States), or niébé (French-speaking Africa). It is an important source of dietary protein for human consumption and of animal feed in the tropics, especially in Africa, Brazil, and India where cowpeas are grown mostly as a subsistence crop for home consumption and are not sold in markets. The cowpea is adapted to hotter, more arid climates and more infertile soils than other food legume crops. Its symbiotic nitrogen-fixing abilities help maintain soil fertility in peasant cropping systems.

The cowpea was domesticated in Africa from one of several wild taxa that belong to the same species as the cultivars and are classified as V. unguiculata ssp. dekindtiana. Cultivars generally have dark-green, glabrous, shiny leaves. Growth habits include climbing, prostrate, and bush types. Flowers are white or violet with various color patterns. Most cultivars are self-pollinating. Seeds can be kidney or egg shaped, spherical or rhomboid. Pigmentation covers the entire seed (self-colored) or surrounds the hilum (eye). Colors are mottled, speckled, or solid and include white, cream, brown, red, pink, green, and black.

The most important utilization of cowpeas is that of seeds, whether mature (dry seeds or blackeye bean) or immature (southern pea). Seeds are marketed as a dry pack or as a canned or frozen product. Other uses, such as for the yard-long beans, are becoming more available, especially in specialty food markets. See also Legume.

Food and Nutrition: black-eyed bean
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Also known as black-eyed pea or cow pea, Vigna sinensis; creamy white bean with a black mark on one edge.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: cowpea
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cowpea, black-eyed pea, or black-eyed bean, annual legume (Vigna sinensis) of the pulse family. Introduced in the early 18th cent. from the Old World to the S United States, it has become a staple of Southern cooking and an important catch crop, soil enhancer, and forage. Cowpea, sometimes called China bean, is grown commercially in India and China and as a high-protein subsistence crop in Africa. Cowpea is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Rosales, family Leguminosae.

Wikipedia: Cowpea
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Cowpea

Black-eyed peas
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Genus: Vigna
Species: V. unguiculata
Binomial name
Vigna unguiculata
(L.) Walp.
Synonyms

Vigna sinensis

The Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is one of several species of the widely cultivated genus Vigna. Four cultivated subspecies are recognised:

  • Vigna unguiculata subsp. cylindrica Catjang
  • Vigna unguiculata subsp. dekindtiana
  • Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis Yardlong bean
  • Vigna unguiculata subsp. unguiculata Black-eyed pea

Cowpeas are one of the most important food legume crops in the semi-arid tropics covering Asia, Africa, southern Europe and Central and South America. A drought-tolerant and warm-weather crop, cowpeas are well-adapted to the drier regions of the tropics, where other food legumes do not perform well. It also has the useful ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen through its root nodules, and it grows well in poor soils with more than 85% sand and with less than 0.2% organic matter and low levels of phosphorus. In addition, it is shade tolerant, and therefore, compatible as an intercrop with maize, millet, sorghum, sugarcane, and cotton. This makes cowpea an important component of traditional intercropping systems, especially in the complex and elegant subsistence farming systems of the dry savannas in sub-Saharan Africa.[1] Research in Ghana found that selecting early generations of cowpea crops to increase yield is not an effective strategy. Francis Padi from the Savannah Agricultural Research Institute in Tamale, Ghana, writing in Crop Science, suggests other methods such as bulk breeding are more efficient in developing high-yield varieties.[2]

Cowpea beans

Cowpeas are a common food item in the southern United States, where they are often called field peas . A subcategory of field peas is crowder peas, so called because they are crowded together in their pods, causing them to have squarish ends.

In Marathi, these are called Chawali/Chavali(चवळी). (Kārāmani or Kārāmani Payir or Thatta Payir Tamil) are an integral part of the cuisine in southern region of India. In Tamilnadu during the Tamil month of Maasi (February) - Panguni (March) called Kozhukattai/Adai (steamed sweet cake) prepared with cooked and mashed cowpea bean mixed with jaggery, ghee and other sub ingredients. In Hindi, it is called 'Lobhia'.

According to the USDA food database, cowpeas have the highest percentage of calories from protein among vegetarian foods.[3]

References

  1. ^ Blade, 2005[specify]
  2. ^ Scott, Christina (2008-04-10). "Sub-Saharan Africa news in brief: 25 March–9 April". SciDev.Net. Science and Development Network. http://www.scidev.net/en/sub-suharan-africa/news/sub-saharan-africa-news-in-brief-25-march-9-april.html. Retrieved 2008-04-13. 
  3. ^ Shaw, Monica (2007-10-28). "100 Most Protein Rich Vegetarian Foods". SmarterFitter Blog. http://smarterfitter.com/blog/2007/10/28/100-most-protein-rich-vegetarian-foods/. Retrieved 2008-04-06. 

External links

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Sci-Tech Encyclopedia. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Copyright © 2005 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Food and Nutrition. A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. Copyright © 1995, 2003, 2005 by A. E. Bender and D. A. Bender. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cowpea".  Read more