A term legume has deuce closely related meanings within botany, a situation found by owning numerous botanic most common list of utile plants whereby an applied title may refer to either a plant itself, or even even to the edible fruit (or utile a portion). So, "legume" may be:

a most common title for plant coinage in the Personal Fabaceae (or Leguminosae); the title of a nature and severity of fruit, characteristic of legumous plants. To wit: Legumes come noteworthy for their ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen, an accomplishment attributable to a symbiotic relationship with certain bacterium called rhizobia found in root nodules of these plants. A ability to form this mutualism reduces fertilizer costs for farmers that grow legumes, & means that legumes may be utilized inside the crop rotation to replenish soil that has been depleted of nitrogen.

Legume seed & foliage has the relatively higher protein content than non-legume material, probably due to the extra n that legumes receive across nitrogen-fixation mutualism. This high protearound content makes the two suitable crops in agriculture. Farmed legumes fall into ii classes: forage and grain. Forage legumes, such as alfalfa, clover and vetch, are inseminate pasture and grazed by livestock. Grain legumes come cultivated for their seeds, and come as well known as pulses. A seeds come utilized for even human being & sensual consumption or for the production of oils for industrial utilizes. Grain legumes include beans, lentils, lupins, peas, peanuts & soybeans.

Note a similarity to the French word "légume", meaning "vegetable".