Family legumes - cultural, medicinal, fodder and technical plants

A significant part of the flora of the temperate zone and the tropics is leguminous plants. This is a fairly large family of flowering plants, which has about 700 genera and at least 17 thousand species. It consists of three subfamilies: tsezalpinia, mimosa and actually legumes (moths). These are lianas and grasses, shrubs and semishrubs, trees. And according to the breadth of their distribution they occupy the second place after the cereals.

The leaves of these plants are basically regular and complex: palpate, feathery and triple, mostly with stipules. Their flowers are most often bisexual, irregular and grow in inflorescences. Seeds of leguminous plants have a straight and large embryo, mostly without endosperm. Well, they have a fruit, naturally, a bean. The family of legumes perfectly adapted to different natural conditions. And these cultures are the environment-forming agents of many plant communities.

And the largest subfamily of legumes are butterflies. It includes various cultural, fodder, ornamental and medicinal plants. Everyone knows such leguminous crops as beans, peas or the same soy. These are annual plants that grow in vegetable rotations. They are rich in vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, mineral salts of phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and calcium. And for eating, mature and unripe seeds of these beans are suitable, as well as young ovaries of their fruit like a pod or scapula. They can also be preserved or used fresh.

For example, beans, part of the legume family, number more than 200 species. And more than 20 of them are cultivated as grain crops. All these species are divided into groups according to geographic features. The Asian group includes the small-seeded species of this legume (angular, golden beans). The second group combines American large-seeded species. This bean is multiflorous, ostrich, ordinary and other similar.

Also in the family of beans is soy. And today all developed countries consider it as one of the most promising crops of the 21st century. And it is grown now almost on all continents. Asian countries produced soy mainly themselves and use. Well, the US exposes to the world market the bulk of these beans. In Russia, too, the industrial production of this culture is developing. And its main crops are concentrated in the Amur Region and in the Krasnodar Territory.

Soy is a very valuable and unique food product. It contains up to 45% protein, up to 23% oil, as well as sugar, carotene, mineral and pectin substances. In addition, soy is a whole storehouse of vitamins B, P, PP, E, K and C. The protein in these beans is 14 times more than in chicken, 3.5 times more than in beef. Still these proteins are well absorbed by the human body, because they are water soluble. The content of amino acids in them is optimal, but in the body they come without cholesterol. In soy oil contains many unsaturated acids, which are also easily digested and protect the body from vascular diseases.

Another legume family includes various fodder herbs, for example, clover. This plant has at least 200 species. And one of them is a clover hybrid. It is not only a grass, but a good honey and a medicinal plant. The ground part of this clover, cut at the time of flowering, the healers are used as a remedy for bronchitis, angina and angina pectoris. Also, folk healers widely use for their purposes clover meadow. Fresh juice of this plant is washed with allergy eyes, and its crushed leaves are applied to suppurating wounds, ulcers and burned skin areas. Also, folk medicine uses other species of this plant.

Also in the family of legumes are technical crops, such as crotal. This is a kind of plant that includes herbs perennial and annual, as well as shrubs and half-shrubs. And this genus includes more than 500 species, which grow mainly in tropical and subtropical climates. For example, the crotch of a crotch, which is known even under such names as Indian hemp and Indian hemp. From this ancient spinning culture, ropes, ropes, burlap, fishing nets and sails are made. It is also used in the production of special types of paper.