Blackgram

Blackgram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper] is a self-pollinated diploid grain legume which belongs to the family Fabaceae and sub- family Papilionaceae with chromosome number 2n=22 (Arumuganathan and Earle, 1991; Sarvani et al., 2020). Indian subcontinent is the centre of origin of blackgram (Zhukovsky, 1962). It is popularly known as blackgram, urdbean and urd or mash. Blackgram is an erect or sub-erect, diffusely branched, herbaceous annual plant. The stem is 20-80 cm long, slightly ridged and occasionally trailing type. Leaves are trifoliate, with long petiole and alternate in nature (Mishra and Lavanya, 2020). The inflorescence is axillary raceme and 5-6 flowers are clustered at the top of a short hairy peduncle. Flowers are bisexual, zygomorphic and complete. Calyx includes five sepals and is gamosepalous in nature. Corolla imbricate include 5 petals pale-yellow in colour. Stamens are diadelphous (9+1). Style is spirally twisted and the ovary is superior, monocarpellary, unilocular having marginal placentation. The fruit is a cylindrical erect pod, 4-7 cm long and 0.5 cm broad. The pods are hairy having a short hooked beaks, buff to brown at maturity.