Glycine


Soybean.USDA.jpg


Plant Characteristics
Lifespan: perennial
Cultivation
Scientific Names

Fabaceae >

Glycine >


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Glycine is a genus in the bean family Fabaceae. The most well known species is the soybean (Glycine max). While the majority of the species are found only in Australia, the soybean's native range is in East Asia. A few species extend from Australia to East Asia (e.g., G. tomentella and G. tabacina)


Read about Glycine in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture 

Glycine (Greek for sweet). Leguminosae. The soybean and related plants. The glycines are allied to Dolichos, Vigna and Phaseolus: the cult, species are distinguished by small and hairy fls. in short axillary racemes: stipules very small and free from the petiole: lfts. 3, large.—Perhaps 40 species, mostly tropical, in Asia, Afr., and Austral., nearly all twining vines. In this country Glycine is known only in the soybean, G. Soja, Sieb. and Zucc., which is an erect, hairy annual from Japan and China. It is also known as the soja or soya bean, coffee bean and coffee berry. It grows 2H5 ft. high, making a rank, bushy herb, and bearing axillary clusters of small hanging, hairy pods, with constrictions between the seeds. Fls. small, white or purple. The seeds are subglobose to oblong, yellow, green, brown or black, but in some varieties particolored. In China and Japan the beans are much used for human food and for the production of oil. For the latter purpose great quantities of seed have been exported in recent years from Manchuria to Eu. In this country the plant is grown for forage, its first use for this purpose dating from 1854. Since 1882, and especially since 1898, the crop has been steadily gaining in importance. The beans may be used as a substitute for coffee; and for this purpose the plant is often sold. The erect form of soybean is unknown in a wild state. It is clearly a domesticated form of G. ussuriensis, Regel & Maack, which is wild in Japan, Manchuria, China, and India. For the economic merits of soybeans, see various experiment station reports; also Farmers' Bull. No. 372, U. S. Dept. of Agric. For a technical exhaustive paper see Bureau of Plant Industry, Bull. No. 197. The soybean has also been made the basis of a distinct genus under the name of Soja, Moench. Glycine was clearly used by Linnaeus to refer primarily to the ground-nut, Apios tuberose.. Botanists who accept Glycine in that sense use Soja for the soybean ana allied species. The plant named Phasephis max by Linmeus is the soybean, and as the description is on a previous page to that of Dolichos Soja, some authors use the specific name max and designate the soybean as Soja max. CH


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Cultivation

Propagation

Pests and diseases

Species

Subgenus Glycine

Subgenus Soja (Moench) F.J. Herm.

Gallery

References


External links