Chickpea: Role and responses under abiotic and biotic stress - Legumes Under Environmental Stress: Yield, Improvement and Adaptations - page 68

in south-eastern Turkey and neighbouring parts of Syria
and may have been first grown in Turkey 7500 years
ago (Oplinger et al., 1990; Singh & Ocampo, 1997).
Chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.) is the only cultivated
species in the genus Cicer and is a self-pollinated diploid
(2n = 2 x = 16) crop. It has been domesticated from C. retic-
ulatum Ladizinsky, a closely related wild species. After
its domestication in the Middle East this crop spread
throughout the Mediterranean region, India and Ethiopia
(van der Maesan, 1987). It has now been introduced to
Mexico, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Australia and the USA
(Duke, 1981). And other upcoming chickpea producers
include Ethiopia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Canada,
Morocco, Malawi and Tanzania. The genus includes 34
perennial herbs and nine annuals (Muehlbauer, 1993).

the genus Cicer have only one carpel per flower. The
small papilionaceous flowers of chickpea have diadel-
phous stamens - nine stamens have fused filaments and
the tenth is free. During the growth of the flower bud,
the filaments extend and anthers deposit pollen on the
pistil. Both the pistil and the anther remain inside the
keel. Self-pollination is the rule, although natural
cross-pollination and cleistogamous pollination have
also been found, which take place before opening of the
bud (Singh & Ibrahim, 1990).
The pod is a rhomboid ellipsoid, with normally one or
two seeds, three at maximum, and is inflated and glan-
dular-pubescent. Pod size varies greatly, but the trait is
least influenced by environment. Pod-filling is highly
dependent on weather and varies from 8.97 to 56.53%
(Pundir et al., 1992). The seed colour is cream, yellow,
brown, black, or green, and seeds are rounded to
angular. The seed coat is smooth, wrinkled or tubercu-
late, and the seed is laterally compressed with a median
groove around two-thirds of the seed, which is beaked
anteriorly. Germination is cryptocotylar (Duke, 1981;
van der Maesen, 1987).
Because of the deep taproot system, chickpea can
grow to full maturity in conditions that are unsuitable
for most other crops. The long taproot enhances the
plant's capacity to withstand drought conditions, and
makes chickpea well suited for cultivation in cooler
areas with low rainfall.
Chickpea is very sensitive to excess water availability,
and therefore is grown in sandy loam soils with an
appropriate drainage system. The productivity of
chickpea is greatly reduced by very cold conditions.
Chickpea is a rabi crop grown in the months of
September-November and harvested in the months of
February-April. After sowing, the maturity period
ranges from 95 to 110 days.

4.3 General botany

Chickpea seedlings are hypogeal and growth of the plu-
mule produces an erect shoot. The primary root is long
and produces lateral roots. Chickpea stems are branched,
erect or dispersed, at times shrubby and much branched,
0.2-metre tall, glandular pubescent, dark green or blu-
ish green in colour. Leaves are compound, arranged in
an alternate phyllotaxy, and generally are imparipin-
nate with 11 to 13 leaflets arranged on a rachis with a
small petiole. The foliage is covered with glandular
hairs, which secrete highly acidic exudates, and this is
considered important in conferring tolerance to insect
pests, such as the pod borer. The plant has a deep root
system and is considered a hardy crop. In deep Vertisols,
roots have penetrated deeper than 120 cm (Sheldrake &
Saxena, 1979). These workers have also reported the
development of lobed nodules. Plants attain a height of
20 to 100 cm, although tall cultivars under favourable
conditions can grow up to 130 cm (Reddy et al., 1985).
The two distinct types of chickpea, 'kabuli' (known as
macrosperma ) and 'desi' (known as microsperma ), differ in
their geographical distribution and plant type. Desi
types are found in Central Asia and in the Indian sub-
continent while the kabuli types are found in the
Mediterranean region. Kabuli types are usually taller
than the desi types.
Flowers are axillary, solitary or in an inflorescence of
two or three. They are white, pink, purplish or blue in
colour. The corolla is generally purple in the desi type
and white in the kabuli type, and is rarely blue. Plants in

4.4 Nutritional uses

Chickpea is consumed mostly as seed in different forms
and preparations are determined by ethnic and regional
factors (Ibrikci et al., 2003; Jukanti et al., 2012). On the
Indian subcontinent it is ground to make flour (besan)
used to prepare different snacks (Hulse, 1991). In Asia
and Africa, chickpea is used in stews, soups and
salads and consumed in boiled, salted, roasted and fer-
mented forms (Gecit, 1991). These different forms of