Cicer arietinum

Cicer arietinum

Facts About

Cultivated for at least 10,000 years, chick-pea remains an important staple food in the Middle East, Africa and India, among other places. With scattered occurrences recorded in North America, it occasionally escapes cultivation in New England, either as a result of commercial or home vegetable-garden production. Several cultivars have been developed.

Botanical classification

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Spermatophyta
Subphylum: Magnoliophytina (Angiospermae)
Class: Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledoneae)
Subclass: Rosidae
Superorder: Fabanae
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae (Papilionaceae)
                                          Genus: Cicer L.
                                          Species: Cicer arietinum L.

Characteristics

Habitat 

terrestrial

Flower petal color

• blue to purple
• white

Leaf type

the leaves are compound (made up of two or more discrete leaflets

Leaf arrangement

alternate: there is one leaf per node along the stem

Leaf blade edges

the edge of the leaf blade has teeth

Flower symmetry

there is only one way to evenly divide the flower (the flower is bilaterallysymmetrical)

Number of sepals, petals or tepals

• there are five petals, sepals, or tepals in the flower
• there are four petals, sepals, or tepals in the flower

Fusion of sepals and petals

• both the petals and sepals are separate and not fused
• the petals or the sepals are fused into a cup or tube

Stamen number

10

Fruit type (general)

the fruit is dry and splits open when ripe

Fruit length

20–30 mm