cowpea

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun An annual African plant (Vigna unguiculata) in the pea family, widely cultivated in warm regions for food, forage, and soil improvement.
• noun An edible seed of this plant.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A plant, Vigna Catiang. See pea.
• noun The cow-pea is a bean rather than a pea, having large leaves with three leaflets and seeds frequently oblong or kidney-shaped. It is commonly classed as Vigna Sinensis, but probably includes more than one natural species, the red-seeded and black-seeded varieties forming one natural group; the round-seeded ‘lady-peas’ a second; the large black-eyed and purple-eyed a third; and the mottled and speckled ‘whippoorwills,’ together with plain yellow, pinkish, and light brown a fourth. The cow-pea is an annual, its numerous varieties passing through all grades of bush, trailing, and running habit, the less rampant being better adapted to short seasons. It requires much heat and will bear no frost; hence it is most at home in the South, but varieties have been secured which will mature in 60 days, and its culture is extending northward. In the southern United States it has long been of great value, and with the introduction of mixed farming is increasingly appreciated. It is available for forage and soiling and for hay, in the latter use, when well cured, ranking with red clover; and it is one of the foremost nitrogen-gatherers. For silage it is inferior to corn or sorghum. The shelled seeds, chiefly of the ‘black-eye pea,’ are used for human food, either fresh or dried.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The seed of one or more leguminous plants of the genus Dolichos; also, the plant itself. Many varieties are cultivated in the southern part of the United States.
• noun (Bot.) A leguminous plant (Vigna Sinensis, syn. Vigna Catjang) found throughout the tropics of the Old World. It is extensively cultivated in the Southern United States for fodder, and the seed is used as food for man.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun the black-eyed pea, Vigna unguiculata

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun eaten fresh as shell beans or dried
• noun sprawling Old World annual cultivated especially in southern United States for food and forage and green manure
• noun fruit or seed of the cowpea plant