Legumes

Leguminosae  

Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock forage and silage, and as soil-enhancing green manure. Well-known legumes include beans, soybeans, peas, chickpeas, peanuts, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, tamarind, alfalfa, and clover. Legumes produce a botanically unique type of fruit – a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces (opens along a seam) on two sides.Legumes are notable in that most of them have symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria in structures called root nodules. For that reason, they play a key role in crop rotation.

Icicle Peas - NEW TO DLF - Icicle winter peas, released by Progene Research of Washington, is a standard leaf, white flowered pea used for cover crop, livestock and wildlife. With characteristics such as winter hardiness and frost tolerance, Icicle peas are a great addition to satisfy your winter forage needs.When properly inoculated with Rhizobium bacteria at planting time, Icicle peas do an excellent job of fixing and storing nitrogen from the air.

Villana Hairy Vetch - NEW TO DLF - provides high yields of palatable forage for livestock, and is a great addition in mixtures with other legumes, cereals, grasses, and forbs

Whistler Peas - NEW TO DLF - Whistler winter peas, released by Progene Research of Washington, is a semi-leafless, white flowered pea with yellow cotyledons. Winter hardly down to 0 degrees Fahrenheit, Whistler winter peas are a great addition to satisfy your winter forage needs. Peas are excellent for nitrogen fixation. Pea seed, properly inoculated with Rhizobium bacteria at planting time, does an excellent job of fixing nitrogen from the air. The bacteria takes nitrogen, binds it with hydrogen from soil water, and forms ammonium, which is a form that is usable by plants. This nitrogen fixation makes peas a perfect partner with cereals and grasses, which use large amounts of nitrogen, as well as banking nitrogen for future crops through cover cropping and green manure plowdown.