Pea

The pea is a pulse or fodder crop, though the word most often refers to the seed, or sometimes the pod, of this flowering plant species, eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species its scientific name in 1753, and each pod contains several seeds, or peas, which may have green or yellow cotyledons when mature; botanically the pod is itself a fruit, since it contains seeds and develops from the ovary of the pea flower. Peas are annual plants with a one-year life cycle and are grown as a cool-season crop in many parts of the world.