Page 27 - Lesson Notes-Morphologyof flowering plant

Economic Importance with Examples
Plants belonging to this family hqs their importance in the following fields
(i) Pulses and Vegetables The family is an important source of pulses and
vegetables. The ^pulses are rich in proteins like gram (chana), pea (matar), field bean
(bankla), cluster bean (gwar), lima bean (lobia), lentil (masoor), bean (sem),
soya(soyabean), etc.
(ii) Oil Edible oils are obtained from the seeds of Arachis hypogaea (groundnut) and
Glycine max (soyabean). Vegetable ghee is prepared by using the oils after
hydrogenation.
(iii) Timber Dalbergia sissoo (Indian redwood),Dalbergia latifolia (Indian rose wood),
are important timber yielding trees of the family.
(iv) Dye Indigofera tinctoria (indigo), Butea monosperma (flame of the forest) is used
to produced red dye used as an astringent.
(v) Fodder Plants like Trifolium alexandrium (barseem), Medicago sativa, Cyamopsis
tetragonoloba, etc., yield fodder for the cattle.
(vi) Fibres Crotalaria juncea (sunhemp) is used to produce fibres.
(vii) Ornamentals Some common ornamental plants are Lathyrus odoratus (sweet
pea), Clitoria (butterfly pea), Lupinus, etc., are common ornamental plants.
(viii) Jewellar s Weights The seeds of Abrus precatorius (ratti) are used weight by
jewellars.
(ix) Medicinal Plants The flowers of Trifolium pratense are used in whooping cough.
The gum of Butea monosperma (dhak) is useful for treating dysentery and diarrhoea.
There are several other examples in this family that are used as medicines.
II. Family-Solanaceae
It is a large family, commonly called as the ‘potato family, it is widely distributed in
tropics, sub-tropics and even temperate zones.
1. Systematic Position