The
Fabaceae,
Leguminosae or
Papilionaceae, commonly known as the
legume,
pea, or
bean family, is a large and economically important
family of
flowering plants. It includes
trees,
shrubs, and
perennial or
annual herbaceous plants, which are easily recognized by their
fruit (
legume) and their compound,
stipulated leaves. The group is widely distributed and is the third-largest
land plant family in terms of number of species, behind only the
Orchidaceae and
Asteraceae, with 630 genera and over 18,860 species. The five largest of the 630 legume genera are
Astragalus (over 2,000 species),
Acacia (over 1000 species),
Indigofera (around 700 species),
Crotalaria (around 700 species), and
Mimosa (around 500 species), which constitute about a quarter of all legume species. About 18,000
legume species are known, amounting to about 7% of flowering plant species. Fabaceae is the most common family found in tropical rainforests and in dry forests in the
Americas and
Africa.