The Legume family includes more than 18,000 representatives of the flora. Plants of various life forms are located in it: here you can find both huge trees and small herbs. The first of them mainly grow in the tropics, while the range of the second is unlimited. Their role is significant in ecosystems, as they are able to accumulate atmospheric nitrogen. Some of them have found their application in the national economy.
Botanical characteristic
The leaves of the representatives of the family are mainly pinnate, ternate, sometimes palmate, with stipules. The upper parts of the leaf are sometimes transformed into antennae, and in some plants the entire leaf is completely.
Inflorescences are represented by heads (clover) or brushes (melilot, lupine).
The Bean family flower has a sail, a boat and oars. The first is understood as the upper large petal. The lateral ones are called oars, and the two lower, fused, are called a boat. The color of the flowers is the most diverse. It has 10 stamens, with 9 stamens fused, and the upper stays free, although sometimes there are exceptions.
The fruit of the legume family is called a bean, although the people call it a pod, which is not entirely correct, since the plants of the cabbage family have the latter. It looks like a bean, but the location of the seeds there is different. Pollination is mainly cross - using bees or bumblebees. There are also self-pollinated species.
The roots have nodules. On them live bacteria in symbiosis with plants, for which they capture atmospheric nitrogen. This leads to the fact that when cultivating representatives of the legume family in agricultural practice, soil fertility improves.
Plant value
They have great feed and nutritional value. This is due to the fact that the Bean family is characterized by a high protein content in the seeds. Some representatives (soy, peanuts) also have a large mass fraction of fat. Individual plants (soy, lupine) contain up to 40% protein in the seeds.
Legumes in a crop rotation leave a large amount of nitrogen in the soil and are a valuable precursor for other crops that alternate with them in a crop rotation.
Individual representatives
Leguminous plants include three subfamilies - Moth, Cesalpius and Mimosa.
Trees belong to the Cesalpian. Their habitat is the tropics. Their most famous representative is a carob tree, the seeds of which make cough syrup and gum, which is used in the food industry. Its seeds have a mass of about 0.19 g, which formed the basis for a measure of the weight of jewelry - carats. The largest tree is the Malacca compass, with a height of about 82 m and a trunk diameter of about 1.5 m.
Mimosa itself belongs to the Mimozov subfamily, as well as many types of acacia.
The most numerous taxonomic unit of the legume family is the dicotyledonous plants - the moth subfamily. Previously, the whole family was called that way. This includes various agricultural plants called legumes: peas, beans, chickpeas, lentils, ranch, soy. Some of the wild ones are used in cattle feeding: clover, sainfoin, alfalfa and others.
Many plants of this family are medicinal: fenugreek, licorice, etc.
There are representatives who are famous for their decorative features: perennial lupine, acacia, sweet peas and others.
Spread
The characterization of the legume family also suggests clarification of their range. They grow all over the globe. In tropical, boreal and warm climates, they make up the dominant part of local vegetation. In the cold belt, their numbers are small, but there are plants that grow in such conditions. They are able to survive in conditions of lack of moisture on clay soils, and can grow on sand, some representatives are found in the mountains at an altitude of up to 5000 m. In the tropics and subtropics they make up the dominant species.
Reproduction and movement
Seeds of the legume family are distributed in various ways. Most of them, which have found application in agricultural production, are self-pollinated, that is, pollination occurs with the flowers of one plant. Pollen ripens in the anther, as soon as it is ready, the latter bursts, and it is carried by the wind or insects.
A large role in the movement is played by water and wind. The fruits of the Malacca compass have pterygoid outgrowths, with the help of which they can fly tens of meters. Other plants have a variety of clues with which they cling to different animals, and they carry them to different places. In some representatives, a mature fetus can be opened by cracking with two wings. They twist with force, which contributes to the spread of seeds within a meter of the plant.
Legume seeds retain their germination for a long time, which in some plants can reach 10 or more years.
Nutrition Composition and Energy Value
The plants that make up the family under consideration differ sharply in nutrition and caloric value of the economically valuable part, depending on the species. So, the beans that gave the name to the taxonomic unit contain:
- 6% protein;
- 9% carbohydrates;
- 0.1% fat.
Moreover, their energy value is 57 kcal per 100 g.
Soya also contains:
- more than 30% protein;
- up to 20% fat;
- about 25% of carbohydrates, which makes it a very high-calorie product.
Its energy value is about 400 kcal per 100 g.
Chemical composition
The main advantage of the legumes is the high content of high-quality protein. It is comparable to animal protein in essential amino acids, and even surpasses it in some plants. So, pea protein contains more tryptophan compared to meat, and soy protein more than chicken eggs. The lysine content in peas is 5 times higher compared to wheat, and in soybean - 10 times.
Most legumes are low-fat, which allows them to be used in low-calorie diets. Professional nutritionists do not recommend using mono-diets only from legumes.
Soybean oil contains polyunsaturated fatty acids. Their quantity is enough to break down cholesterol plaques on blood vessels. Therefore, soybeans refers to crops from which products can be produced that can inhibit atherosclerosis.
Substitute products of the usual products are made from it: tofu, soy milk and others.
Plants of this family are rich in macro- and microelements, as well as vitamins. They contribute to the removal of various toxins from the body. They also remove excess cholesterol from the body.
The danger of legumes when eaten
The legume family (some representatives) is characterized by the presence of purine bases, which are contraindicated in vascular diseases. Also, they should not be used in large quantities for atherosclerosis and urolithiasis.
The same soybean contains trypsin inhibitors in its composition, and therefore requires careful heat treatment.
Legumes in large quantities are heavy food for the digestive tract.
Black vetch contains in its composition hydrocyanic acid, and in large quantities can cause food poisoning.
Many of them contribute to gas formation in the intestine.
Symptoms of poisoning:
- headache;
- nausea;
- vomiting
- icteric epidermis;
- brown urine with a characteristic odor.
When conducting preliminary heat treatment, the risk of poisoning tends to zero.
Finally
Representatives of the legume family include many species of various life forms that are found everywhere. They enrich the soil with nitrogen, and also accumulate nitrogen in the form of protein compounds in their economically valuable part. A characteristic feature is the presence of nodule bacteria in symbiosis with plants. Used in food and feed industry. However, they need to be consumed in moderation, and it is better with a preliminary heat treatment.