Pinyin: [jiāng dòu]

Cowpea (scientific name Vigna unguiculata), commonly known as carob, ginger bean, banded bean, and hanging bean horn. Cowpea is categorized as long cowpea and rice cowpea and belongs to the legume family. Cowpea is an annual plant of the legume family. The stems are dwarf, semi-trailing and trailing. Southern cultivation is dominated by trailing, followed by dwarf. Pteridophyllaceae annual twining herbaceous plants, leaflets 3, terminal leaflet rhombic-ovate, 5-13 cm long, 4-7 cm wide, apical acute, base subrounded or broadly cuneate, glabrous on both surfaces, lateral leaflets obliquely ovate; stipules ovate, ca. 1 cm long, inserted decurrently into a short spur. Calyx campanulate, glabrous; corolla lavender, ca. 2 cm, with yellowish whiskers inside distal part of style. Pods linear, pendulous, up to 40 cm long. Flowers and fruits from June to September.

Leaves are ternately compound, with pedicels 20-25 cm long, bearing 2-4 pairs of flowers at the apex from the leaf axils, white, red, mauve or yellow, usually bearing only two pods, which are slender, varying according to varieties, and are about 30-70 cm long, with dark green, light green, reddish-purple, or russet coloring.

Each pod contains 16 to 22 seeds, kidney-shaped, red, black, red-brown, red and white and black and white two-color seeds, etc., the root system is developed, the roots have pink rhizomes.