Canavalia

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Canavalia

The genus

Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
Canavalia in the large legume

Legume

A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae , or a fruit of these specific plants. A legume fruit is a Fruit#Simple fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually Dehiscence on two sides....
family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
(Fabaceae

Fabaceae

Fabaceae or Leguminosae is a large and economically important family of flowering plants, which is commonly known as the legume family, pea family, bean family or pulse family....
), comprises approximately 70-75 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
of tropical origin. These vine

Vine

A vine is any plant of genus Grape or, by extension, any similar climbing or trailing plant. The word, derived from Latin vinea, referred to the grape-bearing variety....
s have usually bright pea-flowers which are pollinated by insect

Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s such as solitary bees and carpenter bee

Carpenter bee

Carpenter bees are large, hairy bees distributed worldwide. There are some 500 species of carpenter bee in 31 subgenera. Their name comes from the fact that nearly all species build their nests in burrows in dead wood, bamboo, or structural timbers ....
s (e.g. Xylocopa confusa).

They are commonly known as jack-beans. The endemic Canavalia species in the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of 19 islands and atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll....
have been named ?awikiwiki by the Native Hawaiians.

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Encyclopedia

The genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
Canavalia in the large legume
Legume

A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae , or a fruit of these specific plants. A legume fruit is a Fruit#Simple fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually Dehiscence on two sides....
family
Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
(Fabaceae
Fabaceae

Fabaceae or Leguminosae is a large and economically important family of flowering plants, which is commonly known as the legume family, pea family, bean family or pulse family....
), comprises approximately 70-75 species
Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
of tropical origin. These vine
Vine

A vine is any plant of genus Grape or, by extension, any similar climbing or trailing plant. The word, derived from Latin vinea, referred to the grape-bearing variety....
s have usually bright pea-flowers which are pollinated by insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s such as solitary bees and carpenter bee
Carpenter bee

Carpenter bees are large, hairy bees distributed worldwide. There are some 500 species of carpenter bee in 31 subgenera. Their name comes from the fact that nearly all species build their nests in burrows in dead wood, bamboo, or structural timbers ....
s (e.g. Xylocopa confusa).

They are commonly known as jack-beans. The endemic Canavalia species in the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of 19 islands and atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll....
have been named ?awikiwiki by the Native Hawaiians. That name means essentially "the very quick one" and comes from the Hawaiian word for "fast" that has also been appropriated into the name "Wikipedia
Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a Free content, multilingualism encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit organization Wikimedia Foundation. Its name is a portmanteau of the words wiki and encyclopedia....
".

Uses and ecology
Several species are valued legume
Legume

A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae , or a fruit of these specific plants. A legume fruit is a Fruit#Simple fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually Dehiscence on two sides....
crops, including Common Jack-bean (C. ensiformis), Sword Bean (C. gladiata) and Canavalia cathartica. At least the first makes a beneficial weed- and pathogen
Pathogen

A pathogen , infectious agent, or germ, is a biological agent that causes disease or illness to its Host .There are several substrates and pathways whereby pathogens can invade a host; the principal pathways have different episodic time frames, but soil contamination has the longest or most persistent potential for harboring...
-suppressing living mulch
Living mulch

In agriculture, a living mulch is a cover crop interplanted or undersown with a main agriculture, and intended to serve the functions of a mulch, such as weed suppression and regulation of soil temperature....
. The Common Jack-bean is also known as the plant from which Concanavalin A
Concanavalin A

Concanavalin A is a lectin protein originally extracted from the jack-bean Canavalia ensiformis. It binds specifically to certain structures found in various sugars, glycoproteins, and glycolipids, namely internal and nonreducing terminal alpha-Mannose groups....
was described. This lectin
Lectin

Lectins are sugar-binding proteins which are highly specific for their sugar moieties. They typically play a role in biological recognition phenomena involving cells and proteins....
is of major commercial importance as a reagent in glycoprotein
Glycoprotein

Not to be confused with peptidoglycan or proteoglycan.Glycoproteins are proteins that contain oligosaccharide chains covalently attached to their Peptide side-chains....
biochemistry
Biochemistry

Biochemistry is the study of the chemistry processes in living organisms. It deals with the structure and function of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules....
and immunology
Immunology

Immunology is a broad branch of biomedical science science that covers the study of all aspects of the immune system in all organisms. It deals with, among other things, the physiology functioning of the immune system in states of both health and disease; malfunctions of the immune system in immunological disorders ; the physical, chemical an...
.

Bay Bean (Canavalia rosea
Canavalia rosea

Canavalia rosea , commonly known as beach bean, bay bean, seaside bean, coastal jackbean, or MacKenzie bean, is a vine found in tropical and subtropical beach dunes....
) supposedly can act as a mild psychoactive when smoked; it is used in tobacco
Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines....
substitutes.

Some animals have adaptation to the defensive chemicals of jack-beans. Caterpillar
Caterpillar

Caterpillars are the larval form of a member of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly phytophagous in food habit, with some species being entomophagous....
s for example of the Two-barred Flasher (Astraptes fulgerator) are sometimes found on Canavalia. The plant pathogenic ascomycete fungus
Fungus

A fungus is a Eukaryote organism that is a member of the Kingdom Fungi . The fungi are a monophyletic group, also called the Eumycota , that is phylogeny distinct from the morphologically similar slime molds and water molds ....
Mycosphaerella canavaliae was described from a jack-bean. Introduced herbivore
Herbivore

Herbivory is a form of predation in which an organism, known as an herbivore, heterotrophs principally autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria....
s have wreaked havoc on Canavalia on the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of 19 islands and atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll....
and made some nearly extinct; it may be that these lost their chemical defenses as no herbivorous mammals existed in their range until introduced by humans.

Species
in Kawal Wildlife Sanctuary
Kawal Wildlife Sanctuary

Kawal wildlife sanctuary is located in Andhra Pradesh state of India.See also* Wildlife of IndiaReferencesExternal links*...
, India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
.]]
See also

Thierry Bardini
Thierry Bardini

Thierry Bardini is a France sociologist who did all his academic career outside France. He is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the Universit? de Montr?al, Canada, where he co-directs the Workshop in Radical Empiricism ....
- researched Venezuela
Venezuela

Venezuela , officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a country on the northern coast of South America.The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands located off the Venezuelan coastline in the Caribbean Sea....
n jack-bean agriculture early in his career

Footnotes

Gallery

External links

International Plant Names Index: taxa database.