Fabaceae

Fabaceae is commonly called the Pea or Bean family. The name comes from the latin word for bean. It's a big family; it includes 18,000 species.

What brings them together into a family? A few things.

The big one, or at least the most noticeable, is the pea-style flowers. The flowers are usually 5-merous, meaning they have 5 sepals and 5 petals. The petals form a bilaterally-symmetrical corolla and are fused into a characteristic banner, wings and keel. The fruit produced by most members are legumes. Fabaceae leaves often alternate (but sometimes opposite or whirled) and compound (pinnate, bipinnate or palmate), but occasionally simple, usually with with stipules at the base. Most are herbaceous (don't have woody stems above ground). Most, but not all. There are a few trees (like the New Mexico locust) and a few shrubs in Fabaceae.