Black-Eyed Pea

The black-eyed pea, also called the black-eyed bean, is a legume grown around the world for its medium sized edible bean, and is a subspecies of the cowpea, an Old World plant first domesticated in Africa. The most common commercial variety, the California Blackeye, is pale with a distinctive black spot, and the American South grows numerous varieties differing in size and eye color, from black to brown, red, pink or green; all the peas are green when freshly shelled and turn brown or buff when dried. A popular variant is the purple hull pea, also called the mud in your eye pea, which is green with a prominent purple or pink spot. The plant is currently classified as Vigna unguiculata subspecies unguiculata, though it was previously placed in the genus Phaseolus, and its relatives include the wild Vigna unguiculata subspecies dekindtiana and the asparagus bean, Vigna unguiculata subspecies sesquipedalis; some similar looking beans from Mexico are sometimes mistakenly sold as black-eyed peas.