 There are about 18,000 species of herbs, flowers, shrubs, vines, and trees in the legume family. Legumes produce many kinds of chemicals like alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, and canavanine. The amino acid canavanine is only found in the plants in this family. Many flowers in this family have one petal above, two on the sides, and two joined petals on the bottom. The bottom petal is sometimes covered by the side petals.
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 Plants in the legume family include alfalfa, lentils, beans, chick-peas, peas, peanuts, soybeans, kudzu, sweet pea, milkvetch, black locust, clover, wild blue lupine, silvery lupine, Pacific lupine, sundial lupine, bluebonnets, locoweed, snap beans, wisteria, mesquite, broom, gorse, and the mimosa. |
