Vigna

Taxonomy

Vigna C.G. Savi Nom. cons. Pisa Nuov. Giorn. Lett. 8: 113. 1824.

Subfamily: Faboideae.
Phylogenetic Number: 3.10.66.
Tribe: Phaseoleae.
Subtribe: Phaseolinae.
Species Studied - Species in Genus: 43 studied; 150 in genus.

Description

Fruit: A legumelegume:
usually dry, dehiscent fruit derived from a single carpel that opens along two longitudinal sutures
; unilocular; 3–30(–40) cm long; 0.3–1.6 cm wide; 0.25–1 cm thick; 2–9 times longer than wide, or more than 9 times longer than wide; with deciduous androecial sheath; with deciduous corolla; with persistent calyx, or deciduous calyx; with calyx shorter than fruit; without orifice formed by curving of fruit or fruit segments; straight; not plicate; not twisted; symmetrical, or asymmetrical; linear, or falcate; with both sutures nearly straight; inflated, or not inflated; compressed to terete; with beak, or without beak; straight; with solid beak the same color and texture as fruit; blunt at apex, or long tapered at apex, or tapered at apex, or short tapered at apex; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit; long tapered at base, or tapered at base; aligned with longitudinal axis of fruit, or oblique with longitudinal axis of fruit; with the apex and base uniform in texture; chartaceous, or coriaceous, or fleshy; seed chambers externally visible, or invisible; seed chambers with the raised seed chambers not torulose; margin not constricted, or constricted; margin slightly constricted along both margins; margin without sulcus; margin plain, or embellished; margin with ridge(s), or thickened sutural areas; wing(s) absent; nonstipitate; with all layers dehiscing; splitting along suture(s). Dehiscence of valves along both sutures; apical and down; active; with valves twisting. Replum invisible. Epicarp dull; monochrome, or multicolored; mottled; brown, or green, or tan; with brown overlay; mottling color combination variable; with surface texture uniform; glabrous, or pubescent and indurate, or pubescent but soon deciduous; with hairs appressed; with 1 type of pubescence; puberulent, or sericeous, or strigose; with pubescence brown to white; with pubescence uniformly distributed; with simple hairs; stiff; with hair bases swollen, or plain; eglandular; without spines; smooth, or not smooth; with recessed features; not veined; not tuberculate; minutely slitted obliquely; not exfoliating; without cracks; without embedded tissue, much thicker than epicarp, running from base to apex. Mesocarp present; thin; surface not veined; 1-layered, or 2-layered; without balsamic vesicles; without fibers; without reniform canals; solid; with solid layer over solid layer; chartaceous, or fleshy. Endocarp present; visible; dull, or glossy; opaque, or translucent; monochrome; tan, or white; smooth and pithy, or smooth; without adhering pieces of testa; septate, or subseptate; with septa thin (tissue paper-like), flexible; with septa eglandular; chartaceous; not exfoliating; remaining fused to mesocarp and epicarp; without wings; entire. Seed(s) 5–20; length parallel with fruit length, or oblique to fruit length; neither overlapping nor touching; in 1 series. Funiculus 1–1.5 mm long; of 1 length only; flattened; straight, or triangular (rarely). Aril present; fleshy, or dry; when fleshy hippocrepiform rim-aril, or 2-lipped rim-aril, or marginal hilar; crenate; covering less than 1/2 of seed; when dry rim-aril, or rim-aril and tongue-aril; entire; without tongue (or flap) on lips of 2-lipped rim-aril; cream.

Seed: 2–18 mm long; 1–13 mm wide; 1–12 mm thick; not overgrown; angular, or not angular; symmetrical, or asymmetrical; circular, or elliptic, or irregular, or oblong, or ovate, or reniform, or rhombic (irregularly); terete, or compressed; with surface smooth; with visible radicle and cotyledon lobes, or without visible radicle and cotyledon lobes; without external groove between radicle and cotyledon lobes; with shallow hilar sinus, or without hilar sinus; without umbo on seed faces; without medial ridge on each face. Cuticle not exfoliating; not inflated; not wrinkled. Testa present; without pieces of adhering epicarp; not adhering to endocarp; free from endocarp; dull; not modified by a bloom, or modified by a bloom; colored, or clear (rarely); monochrome, or bichrome, or mottled, or streaked; with frequent mottles, or infrequent mottles; with infrequent streaks; brown, or cream, or red, or tan, or white; with black overlay, or brown overlay; glabrous; smooth; coriaceous, or chartaceous. Pleurogram absent. Pseudopleurogram absent. Fracture lines absent. Rim absent. Wing(s) absent. Raphe visible, or not visible; from hilum through base of seed and up the other side; not bifurcating; color of testa; flush and raised. Hilum present; visible, or fully concealed; concealed by aril, or funicular remnant; with faboid split; with the lips of the faboid split the same color as the rest of the hilum; larger than punctiform; 1–4 mm long; with curved outline, or straight outline; elliptic, or oval; linear; apical according to radicle tip but marginal according to seed length; recessed; within halo, or within rim, or not within corona, halo, or rim; halo lighter than testa, or darker than testa; rim color of testa, or lighter than testa, or darker than testa. Lens discernible; 1–2 mm long; with margins straight, or curved; oblong; oblong, or ovate; not in groove of raphe; confluent with hilum; mounded; same color as testa; brown, or red; not within corona, halo, or rim. Endosperm present, or absent; trace; not pluglike and not resembling tip of radicle; restricted to region of embryo; adnate to testa. Cotyledons smooth; both outer faces convex; both the same thickness; both more or less of equal length; with both folded, or not folded; not sufficiently folded for inner face to touch itself; portions of inner folded face unequal; margin entire 180 degrees from base of radicle; similar at apex; partially concealing radicle, or not concealing radicle; notched at radicle, or split over radicle; with lobes, or without lobes; with lobes touching (auriculate), or not touching; with basal groin formed by lobes, or without basal groin formed by lobes; with the interface division terminating at base of radicle; with margin(s) recessed; with 1 margin recessed; recessed on same side as radicle; white; inner face flat, or concave; glabrous on inner face. Embryonic axis oblique, or right angled; oblique to length of seed, or perpendicular to length of seed; without a joint evident between the radicle and the cotyledons. Radicle differentiated from cotyledon; bulbose, or linear, or triangular; lobe tip straight, or curved; oblique to cotyledons, or deflexed and parallel to cotyledon length; centered between cotyledons; less than 1/2 length of cotyledons. Plumule moderately developed, or well developed; glabrous.

Distribution

Pantropics and widely cultivated.

New World and Old World; pantropical; United States, Mexico, West Indies, Central America, and South America; Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, and the Guianas; Mediterranean, China, Japan, Africa, Madagascar, Southwest Asia, India, Indochina, Indonesia and the Philippines, Australia, Fiji, Hawaii, and Korea.

Worldwide crop.

Generic Notes

Niyomdham (1992) transferred Vigna pilosa (J.T. Klein ex C.L. von Willdenow) J.G. Baker to the genus Dolichovigna B. Hayata. He considered the species to be intermediate between Vigna and Dolichos (10.64), and better placed in its own monotypic genus. We have left it in Vigna. Polhill (1994b) accepted Wajira M. Thulin (10.67) as a genus, but we have maintained it as a synonym of Vigna. Eight species or more of Vigna are cultivated, especially in the Old World (Duke, 1981; van der Maesen and Somaatmadja, 1989). The dried seeds of all cultivated species are used as human food, and some species are used as forage or the young pods consumed as human food.

Tribal Notes

Tribe Phaseoleae

Bruneau et al. (1995) carried out cladistic analyses of tribe Phaseoleae using chloroplast DNA restriction site data. Their results indicated that the tribe is not monophyletic and that the tribal delimitations between Phaseoleae and Desmodieae (11) and between Phaseoleae and Millettieae (7) are problematic.