A legume, Cajanus cajan, domesticated in India several thousand years ago, though some researchers argue for an origin in eastern Africa given the presence of wild relatives there, leaving the crop's precise center of domestication debated. Pigeon pea is deeply drought-tolerant and grown as both a food and a soil-improving crop, since as a legume it fixes nitrogen and its deep root system helps break up compacted soil. It is a major pulse crop across South Asia, where it is known as tur or arhar dal, and across East Africa and the Caribbean, where in the latter it is commonly called gandules or pigeon peas.
Facts
Sources
1. Pigeon pea (Wikipedia)
Lead paragraph, life cycle
The pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) is a perennial legume from the family Fabaceae native to the Eastern Hemisphere.
Lead paragraph, use
The pigeon pea is widely cultivated in tropical and semitropical regions around the world, being commonly consumed in the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Lead paragraph, crop class
The pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) is a perennial legume from the family Fabaceae native to the Eastern Hemisphere.
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