Vigna mungo

Vigna mungo

PLANT | Vigna mungo | Known as Urad, urad dal, udad dal, urd bean, urd, urid, black matpe bean, black gram, black lentil (not to be confused with the much smaller true black lentil (Lens culinaris)), maas (in Nepali), đậu đen (Vietnamese, literally: black bean) or white lentil, is a bean grown in southern Asia.

It is largely used to make dal from the whole or split, dehusked seeds. It, along with the mung bean, was placed in Phaseolus but has been transferred to Vigna. It was at one point considered to belong to the same species as the mung bean.

Black gram (Vigna mungo)

Black gram is an annual food legume. It shows both erect and crawling growth habit. There are several distinct characters between black gram and mungbean. Flower color of black gram is bright yellow, while that of mungbean is pale yellow. Pocket on the keel, which is a characteristics of the subgenus Ceratotropis, of black gram is longer than that of mungbean. Pod of black gram is shorter than that of mungbean. Pod of black gram attaches upright to the peduncle, while mungbean pod attaches sideward or downward to the peduncle. In most cases, seed color is dull black. However, shiny black and shiny green seeded black gram is also cultivated in Nepal. The area of traditional cultivation of black gram is confined to the South Asia and adjacent regions (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar).