Moth bean
Overview
 
Vigna aconitifolia, called the moth bean (from Hindi  moṭh, moːʈʰ), mat bean, Turkish gram, or maṭki in Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

, is a small, drought-resistant
Xerophyte
A xerophyte or xerophytic organism is a plant which has adapted to survive in an environment that lacks water, such as a desert. Xerophytic plants may have adapted shapes and forms or internal functions that reduce their water loss or store water during long periods of dryness...

, annual
Annual plant
An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

, trailing herb with small yellow flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s and deeply lobed leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

, grown especially in dry parts of South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

 for its tiny (3-4 mm
1 E-3 m
To help compare different orders of magnitude this page lists lengths between 10−3 m and 10−2 m .Distances shorter than 1 mm* 1.0 mm — 1/1000 of a metre* 1.0 mm — 0.03937 inches or 5/127...

) edible bean
Bean
Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed....

s, which range in color from light brown to dark reddish brown. The sprouted beans taste somewhat sweet.

Matki is very popular in Maharastrian cuisine.
 
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