Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Fabales > Fabaceae > Trigonella > Trigonella foenum-graecum

Trigonella foenum-graecum (sicklefruit fenugreek; Asumodhagam; Classical Fenugreek; Common Fenugreek; Cultivated Trigonella; Fenugreek; Griechischer Bockshornklee; Mathai; Shambala; Trigonelle Fenu-grek; Ulu-hal; Uluvaarisi; Vendayum)

Synonyms:
Language: Armenian; Azerbaijani; French; German; Hindi; Lithuanian; Romanian; Russian; Tadzhik; Tibetan; Ukrainian

Wikipedia Abstract

Fenugreek (/ˈfɛnjᵿɡriːk/; Trigonella foenum-graecum) is an annual plant in the family Fabaceae, with leaves consisting of three small obovate to oblong leaflets. It is cultivated worldwide as a semiarid crop, and its seeds are a common ingredient in dishes from the Indian subcontinent.
View Wikipedia Record: Trigonella foenum-graecum

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Low
Dispersal Mode [3]  Zoochory
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [2]  The seed contains 1% saponins; Although poisonous, saponins are poorly absorbed by the human body and so most pass through without harm. Saponins are quite bitter and can be found in many common foods such as some beans. They can be removed by carefully leaching the seed or flour in running water. Thorough cooking, and perhaps changing the cooking water once, will also remove most of them. However, it is not advisable to eat large quantities of food that contain saponins. Saponins are much more toxic to some creatures, such as fish, and hunting tribes have traditionally put large quantities of them in streams, lakes etc in order to stupefy or kill the fish;
Lifespan [2]  Annual
Pollinators [2]  Insects, Lepidoptera
Structure [4]  Herb
Usage [2]  An essential oil is obtained from the seed - used as a food flavouring and medicinally. The dried plant has a strong aroma of hay; The crushed seed, mixed with oil and massaged into the scalp, is recommended for glossy hair; An infusion of the seed, used as a skin lotion, is said to be good for the complexion; A good green manure crop, it is fast growing and vigorous; A yellow dye is obtained from the seed;
Height [2]  24 inches (0.6 m)
Width [2]  16 inches (0.4 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Trigonella foenum-graecum

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Humber Estuary 90582 England, United Kingdom

Predators

Eurema hecabe (Common grass yellow)[5]

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Erysiphe trifolii[5]
Peronospora trigonellae[5]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3Paula S, Arianoutsou M, Kazanis D, Tavsanoglu Ç, Lloret F, Buhk C, Ojeda F, Luna B, Moreno JM, Rodrigo A, Espelta JM, Palacio S, Fernández-Santos B, Fernandes PM, and Pausas JG. 2009. Fire-related traits for plant species of the Mediterranean Basin. Ecology 90: 1420.
Paula S. & Pausas J.G. 2013. BROT: a plant trait database for Mediterranean Basin species. Version 2013.06.
♦ 4Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0