Lemuropisum edule is an edible wild plant native to south west Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

. Family Fabaceae

Fabaceae

The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, is a large and economically important family of flowering plants. The group is the third largest land plant family, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with 730 genera and over 19,400 species...

 subfamily Caesalpinioideae

Caesalpinioideae

Caesalpinioideae is a botanical name at the rank of subfamily, placed in the large family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. Its name is formed from the generic name Caesalpinia....

The scientific name Lemuropisum edule means edible lemur's pea. The plant grow at altitudes between 15–100 m, only in semi-arid tropical zones of Madagascar with annual rainfall less than 400 mm.

The species is currently under investigation as a potential nut crop in Western Australia

Western Australia

Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

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Description

Unarmed, multistemmed, much branched, spreading shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

 up to 4–6 m tall, crown dense, branchlets sometimes spine-like. Leaves sparse, semi-persistent, paripinnate, with 1-4 pairs of oval to suborbicular leaflets, 3.5–6 mm wide. Inflorescence a raceme

Raceme

A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...

; flowers bisexual, with 4 white petals and 1 tinged yellow. Fruit pendent, subcylindric, depressed between the seeds, 20–30 cm long, 2 cm wide, 2-valved, valves membraneous, dehiscent; seeds 6-12, ovoid-reniform, 2.5 cm long, 1.6 cm across, testa thin and brittle.

Cultivation

Not cultivated in Madagascar. In Australia, after soaking the seeds for 10 hours, germination is rapid. Alkaline soils preferred. Nuts (seeds) are harvested from the ground following dehiscence. Nuts eaten raw, discarding the brittle testa, the cotyledons agreeably sweet with a cashew

Cashew

The cashew is a tree in the family Anacardiaceae. Its English name derives from the Portuguese name for the fruit of the cashew tree, caju, which in turn derives from the indigenous Tupi name, acajú. It is now widely grown in tropical climates for its cashew nuts and cashew apples.-Etymology:The...

-like flavour, smooth consistency and a flexible, rather plastic texture. Apparently not used in cooking; when eaten green the flavour reminiscent of fresh garden peas.

Nutritional value

The nuts contain 38-43% available carbohydrate

Carbohydrate

A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...

s, 26-32% unavailable carbohydrates, 14-16% protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

 and 6-9% fat

Fat

Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...

, comparing favourably with those of Cordeauxia edulis

Cordeauxia edulis

Cordeauxia edulis, also known as the ye'eb , yeheb or jeheb nut is a species of tree from the monotypic genus Cordeauxia. The tree is native to the Horn of Africa where it is found in semi-desert bushland in Somalia and Ethiopia...

. However, the ingestion of 100 g kernels, ca. 84 raw seeds, may inhibit human production of chymotrypsin

Chymotrypsin

Chymotrypsin is a digestive enzyme that can perform proteolysis. Chymotrypsin preferentially cleaves peptide amide bonds where the carboxyl side of the amide bond is a tyrosine, tryptophan, or phenylalanine. These amino acids contain an aromatic ring in their sidechain that fits into a...

and cause digestive upsets, although this could possibly be reduced by cooking or roasting the seeds.