Vicia faba (Broad bean)

Vicia faba, also known in the culinary sense as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean, is a species of flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is of uncertain origin and widely cultivated as a crop for human consumption. It is also used as a cover crop. Varieties with smaller, harder seeds that are fed to horses or other animals are called field bean, tic bean or tick bean. Horse bean, Vicia faba var. equina Pers., is a variety recognized as an accepted name.

Some people suffer from favism, a hemolytic response to the consumption of broad beans, a condition linked to a metabolism disorder known as G6PDD. Otherwise the beans, with the outer seed coat removed, can be eaten raw or cooked. In young plants, the outer seed coat can be eaten, and in very young plants, the seed pod can be eaten.

Description
Vicia faba is a stiffly erect, annual plant 0.5 to 1.8 metres (1.6 to 5.9 ft) tall, with two to four stems that are square in cross-section. The leaves are 10 to 25 centimetres (3.9 to 9.8 in) long, pinnate with 2–7 leaflets, and colored a distinct glaucous (Latin: glaucus) grey-green color. Unlike most other vetches, the leaves do not have tendrils for climbing over other vegetation.

The flowers are 1 to 2.5 centimetres (0.39 to 0.98 in) long with five petals; the standard petals are white, the wing petals are white with a black spot (true black, not deep purple or blue as is the case in many "black" colorings)[3] and the keel petals are white. Crimson-flowered broad beans also exist, which were recently saved from extinction. The flowers have a strong sweet scent which is attractive to bees and other pollinators.

The fruit is a broad, leathery pod that is green, but matures to a dark blackish-brown, with a densely downy surface; the wild species has pods that are 5 to 10 centimetres (2.0 to 3.9 in) long and 1 cm diameter, but many modern cultivars developed for food use have pods 15 to 25 centimetres (5.9 to 9.8 in) long and 2–3 cm thick. Each bean pod contains 3–8 seeds that are round to oval and have a 5–10 mm diameter in the wild plant, but are usually flattened and up to 20–25 mm long, 15 mm broad and 5–10 mm thick in food cultivars. V. faba has a diploid (2n) chromosome number of 12 (six homologous pairs). Five pairs are acrocentric chromosomes and one pair is metacentric.

Cultivation
Broad beans have a long tradition of cultivation in Old World agriculture, being among the most ancient plants in cultivation and also among the easiest to grow. Along with lentils, peas, and chickpeas, they are believed to have become part of the eastern Mediterranean diet around 6000 BCE or earlier. They are still often grown as a cover crop to prevent erosion because they can overwinter and, as a legume, they fix nitrogen in the soil.

The broad bean has high plant hardiness; it can withstand harsh and cold climates. Unlike most legumes, the broad bean can be grown in soils with high salinity, as well as in clay soil. However, it prefers rich loams.

In much of the English-speaking world, the name "broad bean" is used for the large-seeded cultivars grown for human food, while "horse bean" and "field bean" refer to cultivars with smaller, harder seeds that are more like the wild species and used for animal feed, though their stronger flavour is preferred in some human food recipes, such as falafel. The term "fava bean" (from Italian: fava for the bean) is used in some English-speaking countries such as the US, but "broad bean" is the most common name in Commonwealth countries like the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
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