Legume

a pod. Leguminous plants are literally all those whose seeds are borne in a pod; but the term is applied only to the pea family, including peas, beans, pulse, lentils, lupines, clovers, alfalfa or lucern, the peanut, locust, and laburnum. The whole family is valuable. The leaves and stems are good for fodder; the seeds are rich in food material; the roots run deep and pulverize the soil; the leaves take up nitrogen from the air--the same element that makes powder black--and send it down to nodules (colonies of bacteria) in the roots--to be converted into rich plant food. A farm is never impoverished by raising leguminous crops. See Clover; Pea