The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Vigna mungo
Also called Urad Dal
Black gram (Vigna mungo) is a bushy, hairy annual legume grown mainly for its protein-rich seeds, a staple pulse in South Asia. It grows best in warm, seasonally dry conditions and is typically raised as a field crop rather than an ornamental.
The black gram (Vigna mungo) is a bean grown in South Asia. Like its relative the mung bean, it has been reclassified from the genus Phaseolus to Vigna. The product sold as black gram is usually the whole bean, whereas the split bean (the interior being white) is called white lentil. It should not be confused with the much smaller true black lentil (Lens culinaris).
Black gram originated in South Asia, where it has been in cultivation from ancient times. It is very widely used in South Asian cuisine. In India the black gram is one of the important pulses grown in both kharif and rabi seasons. This crop is extensively grown in the southern part of India and the northern part of Bangladesh and Nepal. In Nepal it is known as maas and mash daal in Bangladesh. It is a popular daal (legume) side dish in South Asia that goes with curry and rice as a platter.
It contains high levels of protein (25 g/100 g dry weight), potassium (983 mg/100 g), calcium (138 mg/100 g), iron (7.57 mg/100 g), niacin (1.447 mg/100 g), thiamine (0.273 mg/100 g), and riboflavin (0.254 mg/100 g). Black gram complements the essential amino acids provided in most cereals and plays an important role in the diets of the people of Nepal and India. Black gram is also very high in folate (628 μg/100 g raw, 216 μg/100 g cooked).
Moth bean · Adzuki bean · Hairypod cowpea · Mung bean · Bambarra groundnut · Rice bean · Catjang · Asparagus bean · Black-eyed pea · Cowpea · Cowpea
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vigna mungo by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
