Podalyria calyptrata, the legume bearing legumes

The fruit pod (or legume) of Podalyria calyptrata seen here is hard, inflated and furry. The plant itself is also known as a legume. Legume species used to have the family name of Leguminosae, now replaced by Fabaceae.

The word legume comes from the French légume, denoting the common vegetables, mainly peas and beans, derived from the Latin legumen, which in turn was derived from the Latin verb legere meaning to pick; you don’t have to pull them up like carrots or turnips, or dig them out like potatoes.

The pod-bearing or Fabaceae family also includes genera bearing flowers very different from the pea-flower shape. A well-known South African example is the Acacia genus recently split into different genera, locally now known as Vachellia (spherical flowers) and Senegalia (cylindrical flowers). Still part of Fabaceae, all these trees and shrubs bear pods similar in structure to those of beans and peas, also serving as food for many animal species.

P. calyptrata, also sometimes growing to tree-sized proportions, bears flowers that fit into the general pea-flower appearance (Coates Palgrave, 2002).