What is the fruit of the moth family. Family of Moths (Fabaceae, or Leguminosae). Cultivated legumes

Nutritional value

The nutritional value of legumes is enormous. Before the spread of potatoes in Europe, millions of people daily ate, along with cereals, nutritious, cheap and fertile legumes: peas, garden beans, cowpea (a relative of beans, unfortunately, now forgotten in Europe), the beans themselves, imported intoXvi century. And now large regions (for example, Asia, South America) are very widely used for food legumes. Let's list some of the most famous plants.

1. Common beans. An annual herb. Leaves are alternate, ternary, with stipules. The inflorescence is a brush. It does not tolerate low temperatures, but it is more drought-resistant than peas.

2. Soy. It is ubiquitous in South and Southeast Asia, cultivated in many warm regions. Nutritious, contains up to 40 percent protein, up to 25 percent fat. Herbaceous plant with ternary leaves. Many products are made from soy (natto, tofu, tempeh, etc.) or with its addition, soybean oil is widely used.

3. Peanuts (groundnuts) are herbaceous plants with paired leaves. The beans are formed underground. How does this happen? After fertilization, the flowers sink into the ground, where the beans with a hard shell ripen. Homeland - South America, cultivated in Central Asia. The seeds contain up to 37 percent protein and up to 45 percent fat. Popular peanut butter and a variety of peanut snacks. In the United States, they love peanut butter so much that they even instituted a special holiday for it on January 24.

Feed value

1. Silage is produced from fodder varieties of legumes - juicy nutritious fodder for animals, obtained by the method of fermenting green mass of herbaceous plants. Forage beans, corn, alfalfa, vetch, sainfoin are used for silage.

2. Stems and leaves of legumes (melilot, clover, alfalfa, vetch, ice cream, peas) are mown, dried, and they become an excellent addition to the diet of animals in those regions where year-round grazing is impossible.

Agronomic value

1. They enrich the soil with nitrogen, being the so-called "green fertilizers", or, scientifically, siderates (astragalus, vetch, sweet clover, etc.). How does this happen? Legumes store large amounts of nitrogen as they grow. Even during flowering, the plants are plowed and they, rotting, return nitrogen to the soil.

2. The roots of legumes, long and strong, loosen the soil well, saturate it with oxygen, and prevent erosion.

Ornamental value

The legume family unites a wide variety of plants, including emphasized decorative ones. They wonderfully decorate parks, gardens and private plots: for example, pseudoacacia robinia, broom, clianthus with its large red flowers of an unusual shape.

Medicinal value

And here legumes are irreplaceable human companions. They have been used in medicine for thousands of years! Thermopsis lanceolate, licorice, sweet clover are used in the treatment of cough, have many useful properties. Cassia helps in the treatment of the stomach, Astragalus - in hypertension. In addition, many legumes are valuable melliferous plants, since harvested honey is a delicious medicine in itself.

It is the most common of the families (about 17,000 species).

The flowers resemble moths, hence the second name of the family - moths. Trees and shrubs (in hot countries), annuals and perennials (in cold climates).

Edible legumes - peas, beans, soybeans, lentils, peanuts. Fodder - clover, alfalfa, vetch. Many are medicinal plants (licorice, thermopsis). Wild plants - camel thorn, licorice, forest peas, etc. Some legumes are grown as ornamental plants (yellow and white acacia).

The leaves of legumes can be trifoliate (clover, beans)), pinnate (soybeans, peas), palmate (lupine):

The flower of legumes is five-petalled, bilaterally symmetrical. Each of the petals has its own name: the upper one is a sail. Two petals on the sides are oars. The two lower ones, fused at the end of the petal, are a boat. The boat covers one pistil, surrounded by nine fused stamens and one free (or ten fused). Flower formula H (5) L1,2 (2) T (9), 1P1

Flowers in legumes are single or collected in a head (clover), or a brush (sweet clover, lupine). From the ovary, a fruit develops - a bean. The seeds contain a lot of protein.

Most legumes have root nodules in which nitrogen-fixing bacteria live. Plants need nitrogen, but they cannot get it from the air on their own.

When the plants are pulled out of the ground, the nodules break off and remain in the ground, enriching the soil with nitrogen.

The legume family has another name - Butterflies. This family belongs to the class of Dicotyledonous plants. It includes a huge number of plants.

Among the common features of all plants of the legume family, the following should be noted. The flowers of the representatives of the family are incorrect. They have five petals, differing in shape and size, and ten stamens. Legumes have a characteristic structure. Their name corresponds to the name of the family - bob. Common features include the fact that the ovary is always single-membered, not divided into lobes. The fruit is always bivalve, in most cases polyspermous. Single-seeded is found only in plants of the genus Clover. When the seeds are ripe, the fruit bursts along the seam. The seeds are attached directly to the valves.
The legume family is very large. It includes over two hundred genera and over six thousand species. Legumes grow all over the world, in all latitudes and climates. They are found in alpine meadows and the High North, as well as in deserts and tropical forests.
In the family, herbaceous forms and trees with shrubs are almost equal in number.
The large family is divided into three subfamilies: legumes proper, which include the largest number of representatives, Mimosa and Caesalpinia, which grow exclusively in warm climates.
Representatives of the legume subfamily have a two-symmetrical flower. It consists of a non-falling calyx containing five sepals, a corolla of five petals, ten stamens and a pistil. The petals of the opened flower resemble a moth with open wings. From this came the name moth. Also, the flower is often compared to a boat. The largest petal is called a sail, the side small symmetrical petals are called oars, and the lower ones fused together are called a boat. It is in the boat that the pistil and ten stamens are located, of which nine are fused, and one is free (in most species of the subfamily). Accrete stamens form a plate that fits the pistil.
The leaf blade of legumes is usually complex. They can be pinnate, clawed with a large number of leaves. Often in these plants and stipules, which can reach significant sizes, in some cases, larger than the leaves themselves. Antennae are frequent elements. They develop on top of compound leaves. Antennae are both simple and branched.

The subfamily of legumes includes many genera of ubiquitous plants: beans, lupines, lentils, soybeans, vic and many others.

Significantly fewer genera belong to the Caesalpiniaceae subfamily. This group is distinguished by less irregularity of flowers. They have non-accrete all ten stamens and non-accrete lower petals, which form a boat in plants of the legume subfamily. The fruits of the Caesalpiniaceae open at one seam or do not open at all. This subfamily includes genera, Caesalpinia, Tamarind, Carob and some others.

Even fewer genera are included in the Mimosa subfamily. They only grow in warm climates. Flowers are small, almost regular, collected in dense inflorescences of the head, and sometimes in a brush. The number of sepals and petals ranges from four to six. The number of stamens ranges from four to an indefinite number. The leaves of mimosa are usually bipinnate and have small lobes. The fruit is a standard bean with no significant differences. The most striking representatives of mimosa are bashful mimosa, real acacia and some others.

The legume family is an extensive group that includes a variety of representatives. There are also medicinal plants in it. These include medicinal galega, healing ulcer, red clover and many others.

If we consider the economic importance of legumes, then it is worth noting that they are second only to cereals. For a long time, the fruits of legumes have been used for food and now they are the most important food product. Cultivated beans, peas, beans, soybeans and peanuts, mung bean. There are tropical legumes of the genus Pachyzirus, which form tubers, which are also used for food.
In addition to food, there are forage legumes such as clover, alfalfa, lupine, vetch.
Legumes also provide valuable wood. First of all, these are trees belonging to the genera Acacia and Prozopis. Valuable wood is provided by Afromosia golden, dalbergia, pterocarpus and many other tropical trees belonging to the legume family.

, zygomorphic, with a double perianth. The calyx is multi-leaved, 5-4 dentate, sometimes 2-lipped. Corolla "moth", consists of a flag, or sail, two wings, or oars, and a boat, formed by two fused petals and covering the stamens and pistil. Most often 10 stamens, of which 9 grow together with filaments, sometimes all 10 stamens grow together, rarely all 10 are free. Gynoecium apocarpous from 1 carpel. Ovary superior 1-slotted, with several or many campylotropic ovules with 2 integuments along the ventral suture. The fruit is a bean.

The seeds are often very hard seed coat. The ovules are short. The scar is usually large.

400 genera and about 9000 species around the world.

Butterflies are a huge family, ranking 3rd in the number of species, and 4th in the number of genera among the families of flowering plants.

Some genera of moths contain many species. The largest in the family, the genus Astragalus (Astragalus) has 1,500 species. It is also the largest flowering genus in the flora of the former USSR (over 800 species). The role of moths is very significant not only in temperate and cold latitudes, but also in tropical countries, especially among grasses. Many of them are typical climbing plants of the tropics, but there are also many woody vines, such as wisteria (Wistaria sinensis), as well as shrubs and trees among the butterflies. The latter are more in the tropics, but some are well known to the inhabitants of temperate countries, first of all the white acacia (Robinia pseudacacia), originating from North America, and the yellow acacia (Caragana arborescens), originating from Altai. These acacias should, of course, not be confused with the true acacias (Acacia) of the mimosa family.

Moths are very easy to recognize by their peculiar corolla and androeum, clearly adapted to pollination by hymenoptera. For example, under the weight of a bumblebee landing on a flower, the wings, together with the boat, descend, exposing the lower part of the staminate tube that encloses the pistil. The openness of the tube, due to one free stamen, facilitates access to the nectar that is secreted at the base of the pistil. In many moths, however, there is self-pollination, at least optional. You can suggest the following 2-lipped butterfly flower formula, for example beans (Vicia faba): K3,2C1,2 (2) A (5 + 4) 1G1_

Most moths have complex, pinnate leaves, but, for example, in peas (Pisum), the genus Vicia and the genus Lathyrus, a tendril develops in place of the terminal leaflet. These are climbing or clinging plants. Trifoliate leaves are very common among moths, especially in the tropics, but they are not uncommon in our latitudes. Suffice it to recall the various clovers (Trifolium), alfalfa (Medicago) or beans (Phaseolus).

The root systems of moths are characterized by a powerfully developed taproot, sometimes reaching colossal depth; for example, in the desert camel thorn (Alhagi), according to some sources, up to 20 m, which allows water to be extracted from very deep horizons. The roots usually contain many sclerenchymal elements. A remarkable feature of them is also the settlement of bacteria that have the ability to use atmospheric nitrogen for the synthesis of proteins. They are called nodule bacteria, because as a result of their introduction into the primary cortex of the root, the latter grows, forming nodules. Due to this symbiotic relationship, many moths thrive on nitrogen-poor soils. When the organs of moth plants die off, the soil is enriched with nitrogen-containing compounds, which, through other bacteria, are subsequently used by various green plants. The economic role of many moths is based on this.

Although all moths have a single, in principle, type of fruit - a pod, the shape and size of the latter are very diverse (Fig. 135). The beans are not always polyspermous and open with two valves, like peas. Non-opening beaver and 1-seeded beans are common (compare to pods). In some species of the liana genus Mucuna, which is widespread in the tropics, they are covered with so-called "itchy hairs" (like the caterpillars of the marching silkworm), which cause unbearable itching throughout the body, even when planting a herbarium plant.

The seeds of some tropical species are brightly colored red and black. The most famous in this respect is the abrus (Abrus precatorius), a climbing plant that slightly resembles a vetch. It is curious that in these plants, when the pod is opened, the seeds do not spill out, remaining clearly visible against the background of greenery. Here one of the options takes place

The Latin name is fabaceae or papillionaceae.
Dicotyledonous class.

Description. The name of this family is determined both by the name of the fruit - a bean, and by the shape of the flower, the corolla of which looks like a flying moth. Legumes come in a wide variety of life forms, from tiny desert plants to huge trees and vines, but they all share the same traits. Their fruit is a bean, flowers of a moth type, and nodules formed by bacteria are located on the surface of the roots. Another characteristic feature of legumes is the ability of nodule bacteria to fix nitrogen gas from the atmosphere in addition to soil nitrogen.

The legume family unites more than 17 thousand species of valuable cultivated and wild plants and is subdivided into three subfamilies: mimosa, cesalpinia and moths. Its representatives are adapted to any natural conditions and are environment-formers within many plant communities, and arboreal and herbaceous forms are almost equally abundant. The largest plant of the family is the tropical hard-leaved bean tree compassia Malacca (koompassia moluccana) 82.4 m high and 1.49 m trunk diameter.

Legumes are plants that differ greatly from each other, both in terms of economic value and biologically, i.e. attitude to moisture, heat and food. Some of them have seeds rich in protein - these are food products (soy, peas, beans, lentils, peanuts, etc.). Many legumes are forage grasses (alfalfa, clover, lupine, camel thorn, sweet clover, etc.), which are valuable animal feed, both in green and dry form. There are medicinal legumes (licorice, broomstick, thermopsis), melliferous (saradella, pacelia) and even technical (crotalaria, sinegalskaya acacia). Twenty-three types of legumes are included in the Red Book of Russia.

In the tissues of the roots of moths, very mobile nodule bacteria live, ranging in size from 0.5 to 3 microns. After penetrating into the root hair, they cause intensive division of its cells, as a result of which a small growth appears - a nodule. Plants receive the required amount of nitrogen compounds from bacteria, and they, in turn, receive vital organic substances from the plant.

All plants of the legume family, as a rule, have complex leaves: in lupine they are finger-complex, in beans, soybeans and clover they are ternary, in peas they are paripinnate, and in white acacia they are odd-pinnate. The arrangement of the leaves is alternate. At their base there are well-developed paired stipules in the form of either green leaves (peas) or thorns (white acacia).

Legume flower incorrect and consists of 5 dissimilar petals that have received specific names. The largest, called a sail, is a pair of neighboring, narrower and symmetrically located oars or wings, and the last two, fused along the lower edge, are called a boat, inside which, surrounded by 10 stamens, a pistil is placed. All flowers are single or collected in inflorescences: a brush (lupine, peas), a head (clover) or a simple umbrella (lyadvenets). Their number in the inflorescence is different, up to one, but then quite large. Formula of moth flowers: H (5) L 1 + 2 + (2) T 1+ (4 + 5) P 1 or Ca (5) Co 1 + 2 + (2) A 1+ (4 + 5) G 1

Legume, called a bean, and in the people - a pod, has a special structure and develops from a single carpel. It is a kind of unilocular fruit with two valves, to the inside of which seeds are attached. In some species of moth (single-seeded) leguminous kernels, there is only one, in most others (polyspermous) there are several. When ripe, the fruit opens one at a time (for representatives of the Caesalpinium subfamily) or two seams. Beans come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The largest, reaching a length of up to 1.5 m, is in the climbing eptada (Enlacia scaridens). It is also the largest in the world.

Spread. Plants of the moth family grow on all continents from the tropics to the polar islands and in various natural zones from deserts to humid forests and swamps. In most countries of temperate, tropical and boreal climates, they constitute the bulk of the local flora. Only in places with a cold climate is the share of their participation relatively small. Representatives of legumes have perfectly adapted to the lack of moisture on infertile clay soils, mobile sands and are even able to climb mountains to a height of 5 thousand meters. In the humid tropics and subtropics, they are often included in forests as the main species.

Reproduction of moth characterized by the type of pollination and a wide variety of seed distribution methods. Many grain legumes (peas, soybeans, beans, some types of lupine, etc.) are self-pollinators. Their pollination occurs with the flowers of one plant. When the pollen is fully ripe, the anther of the stamen bursts, and it is carried by insects or wind.

Wind and water play a critical role in the movement of legumes. Pterygoid outgrowths sometimes allow the fruit to glide freely for tens of meters, like in the tropical Malacca compassion tree. A variety of outgrowths or tiny thorns that play the role of hooks contribute to the dispersal of plants by animals. Facts are also known when a ripe fruit cracks, opening with two valves. At this moment, the shutters simultaneously twist with force, scattering the seeds a meter away from the parent plant. Under favorable storage conditions, beans seeds are capable of producing excellent germination even after a decade.