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Three species of Vigna are in common cultivation: the cowpea, V. sinensis; the catjang, V. Catjang; and the asparagus bean, V. sesquipedalis. The asparagus bean (V. sesquipedalis) can be used as a forage plant for stock, or the green pods may be cooked as a snap bean since they are more tender and brittle than those of the cowpea or catjang. This species is little grown, however, due to a lack of productivity, except as a curiosity or novelty. The nomenclature of the cultivated varieties of the cowpea and catjang is almost hopelessly confused. Piper enumerates 220 agricultural varieties of the former and 50 of the latter. Formerly the name cowpea was restricted to the buff-colored or clay-pea, but it is now commonly used generically; it is an Americanism. Common generic terms now in use in the South are "black-eyed pea" and "corn-field pea." While the cowpea and the catjang are now employed mostly for animal food and green-manuring, the pea itself is a good human food and has been so used for many years. For table use the peas are best gathered when the pods first begin to change color; however, they are most extensively used from the dry ripe pods. As long ago as 1855 an excellent essay on cowpeas was written by Edmund Ruffin ("Essays and Notes on Agriculture," Richmond, 1855). Piper (Bulletin No. 229, Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture) describes these three species as follows:
Three species of Vigna are in common cultivation: the cowpea, V. sinensis; the catjang, V. Catjang; and the asparagus bean, V. sesquipedalis. The asparagus bean (V. sesquipedalis) can be used as a forage plant for stock, or the green pods may be cooked as a snap bean since they are more tender and brittle than those of the cowpea or catjang. This species is little grown, however, due to a lack of productivity, except as a curiosity or novelty. The nomenclature of the cultivated varieties of the cowpea and catjang is almost hopelessly confused. Piper enumerates 220 agricultural varieties of the former and 50 of the latter. Formerly the name cowpea was restricted to the buff-colored or clay-pea, but it is now commonly used generically; it is an Americanism. Common generic terms now in use in the South are "black-eyed pea" and "corn-field pea." While the cowpea and the catjang are now employed mostly for animal food and green-manuring, the pea itself is a good human food and has been so used for many years. For table use the peas are best gathered when the pods first begin to change color; however, they are most extensively used from the dry ripe pods. As long ago as 1855 an excellent essay on cowpeas was written by Edmund Ruffin ("Essays and Notes on Agriculture," Richmond, 1855). Piper (Bulletin No. 229, Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture) describes these three species as follows:
Some species of Vigna are useful for ornament. V. strobilophora, Robs., from Mex. (Fig. 3932), is said by Pringle (G.F. 7:155, from which Fig. 3932 is reduced) to have abundant fls. that rival those of the wisteria in beauty. It is a twining woody vine climbing to tops of trees and shrubs: st. slender and flexuous, pubescent: lfts. 3, ovate, acuminate, entire, rounded at base, 2 1/2 in. long: fls. in dense axillary peduncled racemes, blue-purple, standard orbicular, slightly retuse, with 2 small appendages at base; bracts large, closely imbricated. V. vexillata, Benth. (Phaseolus vexillatus, Linn.), widely spread in the tropics and warm parts of Old World, is intro. in S. Calif.: woody perennial with pink fls., the rootstock tuberous, hairy: lfts. usually ovate-lanceolate to narrow-lanceolate, entire, 2-4 in. long: fls. 2-4 in a cluster on summit of peduncle; standard nearly 1 in. across, reflexed: pod 3-4 in. long, nearly cylindrical.
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