Floral biology of food legumes

Some common, good-for-you legumes include:
Chickpeas, also called garbanzo beans.
Peanuts.
Black beans.
Green peas.
Lima beans.
Kidney beans.
Black-eyed peas.
Navy beans.Legumes, or pulses, are flowering plants in the Leguminosae family. ... Each sub-family is identified by its flowers. Edible legume crops are mainly found in the sub-family Papilionoideae. This includes the soybean, chickpea, bean, and pea, among others.
Papilionoid legumes generally have three kinds of petals: a dorsal petal, called a 'standard', two lateral petals or 'wings', and two ventral petals forming the 'keel'.
There are 10 stamens, as in nearly all legumes; in this subfamily they are separate. All species are woody. Examples include royal poinciana or arbol de fuego (Delonix regia), palo verde (Cercidium and Parkinsonia), bird-of- paradise (Caesalpinia), and cassias (Cassia).

There are commonly four distinct whorls of flower parts: (1) an outer calyx consisting of sepals; within it lies (2) the corolla, consisting of petals; (3) the androecium, or group of stamens; and in the centre is (4) the gynoecium, consisting of the pistils.


Flower biology:
 Flowers are in an axillary or terminal receme, peduncle up to 13 cm in length with clusters
of 10 to 20 flowers.
 Corolla is yellow in colour and papilionaceous, sometimes curved 5-10 cm long. Small
flowers are borne in capitates clusters on the end of long hairy peduncles.
 Petals are five in numbers, three kinds of petals, 1 standard, 2 wings and 2 keels.
 Androecium: male reproductive part stamen has got two parts anther and filament.
 Gynoecium : Female reproductive part made up of stigma, style and ovary. Gynoecium is
monocarpellary with a superior unilocular ovary.
 The stigma is hairy and placentation is marginal.
 Keel encloses reproductive organs, 10 stamens and one gynoecium.
 Anthesis and pollination:
 Pollination occurs a night prior to opening of the flowers.
 Anthers start dehiscing from 9 a.m. and complexly dehisced by 3 a.m.
 A stigma is by then receptive and is thoroughly covered with pollen.
 Flower open between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. and remain open till 11 a.m. later they close between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.
 Pollen shedding takes place long before the petals open.
 Cleistogamy occurs to an extent of 40 %.
 Pollination is effected in the bud stage on the night previous to the opening of the flower.
 Shivashankar’s Methods:
 Followed in pulse crop
 On the evening previous to the day of pollen shedding, transverse cut is made in flower
bud.
 Facilitates removal of upper portion of the corolla like a cap without causing injury to the
gynoecium.
 Anthers are clipped off automatically and remains inside the corolla cap which is
removed.
 The stigma is then pollinated with desired pollen on the next morning.

Breeding objectives:
1. High yield
2. Maturity:
(i) Early, 60-70 days (ii) Mid-late, 90 days (iii) Late, 90-120 days
3. Adaptation
4. Resistance to shattering
5. Insects pests and diseases resistance
6. Breeding for quality: Cooking quality and nutritional value, seed size, seed colour etc.
 Breeding Methods:
1. Introduction - Pusa baisakhi
2. Pure line selection - Co1
3. Hybridisation and selection
Inter Varietal :
Inter specific - To transfer high methionine content from black gram to
green gram.
V. radiata x V.umbellata rice bean to transfer resistance to bean fly crossing with
V.radiata var. sublobata resistance to bruchids
5. Mutation breeding
Co4 - mutant of Co1

Research Stations:
A. National:
Indian Institute of Pulses Research (IIPR), Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh
B. State level:
Main Pulses Research Station, SDAU, Sardarkrushinagar
 Improved varieties:
Gujarat Mungbean-1, Gujarat Mungbean-2, Gujarat Mungbean-3, Gujarat Mungbean-4,
K-851, Gujarat Mungbean-5, Gujarat Mungbean-6, Gujarat Mungbean-7, Meha