NL·0062Herbarium of the Nature Library
- Name
- Cicer arietinum
- Family
- Fabaceae
- Native to
- South-eastern Turkey (wild ancestor Cicer reticulatum); grown across South Asia, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Ethiopia, Australia and the Americas
- Habitat
- Semi-arid farmland, Mediterranean hills
Chickpea
Cicer arietinum
Also calledChana (Hindi/Urdu) · Ḥummuṣ (Arabic) · Nokhod (Persian) · Nohut (Turkish) · Garbanzo (Spanish) · Shimbra (Amharic) · Yīngzuǐdòu (Chinese)
A small, hairy-leaved legume domesticated in south-east Turkey about 10,000 years ago and the base of hummus, falafel, chana masala and besan flour. India grows about 70% of the world's crop.
The chickpea or chick pea is an annual legume of the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae, cultivated for its edible seeds. Its different types are variously known as gram, Bengal gram, chana (চানা), garbanzo, garbanzo bean, or Egyptian pea. It is one of the earliest cultivated legumes, the oldest archaeological evidence of which was found in Syria. Wikipedia
What it can do
- iLeaf hairs secrete malic and oxalic acid, deterring insects (dew on leaves is sour)
- iiDeep taproot lets it mature on stored soil moisture after rains end
- iiiFixes nitrogen through root nodules
- ivTwo main types: small, dark, angular 'desi' and large, cream 'kabuli'
At the table
Eatenseeds (cooked, roasted, ground into besan/gram flour) · green immature seeds · young leaves (cooked in South Asia)
Dry seeds must be soaked and cooked. Raw dry chickpeas are indigestible and contain antinutrients.
In the medicine cabinet
| Tradition | Use |
|---|---|
| Unani | Chickpea broth as a diuretic and for kidney stones |
| Ayurveda | Besan paste (with turmeric) as a skin cleanser (ubtan) |
| Ancient Greek medicine (Dioscorides) | Chickpeas as a diuretic and to promote menstruation |
Weight of evidence
Traditional. Long historical use; little or no modern clinical evidence.
Active compounds
protein, resistant starch, folate, biochanin A, galacto-oligosaccharides
Fruit & seed
Fruit
Legume (pod)
Ripens: Spring to early summer (winter crop in India)
Short, inflated, hairy pods 2–3 cm, like small balloons, usually holding 1–2 seeds.
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Seed
5–12 mm
Round to angular seeds with a pointed beak like a ram's head: kabuli types cream-beige, smooth, 8–12 mm; desi types smaller, wrinkled, brown, green or black, 5–8 mm
- Dispersal
- Humans
- Germination
- Sow 4–8 cm deep in soil above about 10 °C; emerges in 7–14 days
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under open licences; hover for the photographer, click for the file.
How to grow it
Hardiness (USDA zones)
Annual cool-season crop (spring in temperate areas, winter in subtropics)
- Light
- Full sun
- Water
- Low; grows on residual soil moisture
- Soil
- Well-drained loam or clay loam, pH 6–8; intolerant of waterlogging
- Propagation
- Seed
- To harvest
- 90–120 days for dry seed
- Climates
- Mediterranean, Semi-arid, Subtropical (winter)
- 1Sow seed 4–8 cm deep after the last hard frost (or in autumn in mild-winter areas), 8–10 cm apart in rows 30–45 cm apart.
- 2Do not fertilise with nitrogen; inoculate seed with Mesorhizobium ciceri if chickpeas haven't grown there before.
- 3Water sparingly — damp conditions encourage Ascochyta blight.
- 4Pick some green pods to eat fresh, or wait until plants turn yellow-brown and pods rattle.
- 5Pull or cut plants, dry, thresh and store seed dry; soak overnight before cooking.
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Native range
South-eastern Turkey (wild ancestor Cicer reticulatum); grown across South Asia, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Ethiopia, Australia and the Americas
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
Woodcuts and engravings matched from the Source Library’s scanned books by name. Plates marked “relative” show a close kin rather than this exact species. Click a plate to read the page it came from, with translation.
On the Names of Plants
Hieronymus Bock (Tragus) · 1552 · p.681
Commentaries on the Six Books of Dioscorides on Medical Matter
Pietro Andrea Mattioli · 1563 · p.364
Six Groups of the History of Plants
Rembert Dodoens · 1583 · p.536
A New Herbal, or History of Plants
Rembert Dodoens (trans. Henry Lyte) · 1578 · p.503
Commentaries on the Six Books of Pedanius Dioscorides on Medical Matter
Pietro Andrea Mattioli · 1565 · p.587
Ortus sanitatis
1491 · p.122
Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants
Leonhart Fuchs · 1542 · p.301
Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants
Leonhart Fuchs · 1549 · p.299
On Medical Materials in Six Books
Dioscorides · 1550 · p.257
De medicinali materia libri sex
Dioscorides · 1552 · p.265
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Cicer arietinum in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
Marginalia
The Roman orator Cicero's family name is said to come from 'cicer', chickpea, perhaps after a wart on an ancestor's nose. Roasted chickpeas were sold as street food in ancient Rome and are still the 'leblebi' of Turkey.
Curiosity
During coffee shortages in Europe, roasted ground chickpeas were brewed as a coffee substitute.
Kinship
Photographs: iNaturalist contributors under the licences shown. Records: GBIF.org. Historical plates: Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0; originals public domain). Summary text: Nature Library editors and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Medicinal and edibility notes are historical and educational, not advice. iNaturalist taxon 122854.