Cowpeas

Cowpeas are one of the most important food legume crops in the semi-arid tropics covering Asia, Africa, southern Europe and Central and South America. A drought tolerant and warm weather crop, cowpeas are well-adapted to the drier regions of the tropics, where other food legumes do not perform well. It also has the useful ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen through its root nodules, and it grows well in poor soils with more than 85%% sand and with less than 0.2%% organic matter and low levels of phosphorus. In addition, it is shade tolerant, and therefore, compatible as an intercrop with maize, millet, sorghum, sugarcane, and cotton.

Cowpeas are also common in the southern United States, where they are often called field peas. A subcategory of field peas is crowder peas, aptly names as they are crowded together in their pods, causing them to have squarish ends.