Pea (pisum in Latin) is a pulse, vegetable or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species.

They are a cool-season crop grown in many parts of the world; planting can take place from winter to early summer depending on location.

The vining cultivars grow thin tendrils from leaves that coil around any available support and can climb to be 1 to 2 metres (3 to 7 ft) high.

The earliest archaeological finds of peas date from the late Neolithic era of current Syria, Anatolia, Israel, Iraq, Jordan and Greece.

[12] From plants growing wild in the Mediterranean Basin, constant selection since the Neolithic dawn of agriculture[13] improved their yield.

In the early 3rd century BC, Theophrastus mentions peas among the legumes that are sown late in the winter because of their tenderness.

[14] In the first century AD, Columella mentions them in De re rustica, when Roman legionaries still gathered wild peas from the sandy soils of Numidia and Judea to supplement their rations.

[citation needed] In the Middle Ages, field peas are constantly mentioned, as they were the staple that kept famine at bay, as Charles the Good, count of Flanders, noted explicitly in 1124.

[15] Green "garden" peas, eaten immature and fresh, were an innovative luxury of Early Modern Europe.

Green peas were introduced from Genoa to the court of Louis XIV of France in January 1660, with some staged fanfare.

[17][clarification needed] The world’s first sweet tasting pea was developed in the 18th century by amateur plant breeder Thomas Edward Knight of Downton, near Salisbury, England.

[citation needed] The term pea originates from the Latin word pisum,[19] which is the latinisation of the Greek πίσον (pison), neuter variant form of πίσος (pisos) 'pea'.

[25] Despite its scientific popularity, its relatively large genome size (4.45Gb) made it challenging to sequence compared to other legumes such as Medicago truncatula and soybeans.

PMR indicates some degree of powdery mildew resistance; afila types, also called semi-leafless, have clusters of tendrils instead of leaves.

[37] The description is inconsistent with the appearance of snow peas, and therefore botanists have replaced this name with Pisum sativum var.

It has been an important grain legume crop for millennia, seeds showing domesticated characteristics dating from at least 7000 years ago have been found in archaeological sites around what is now Turkey.

The major producing countries of field peas are Russia and China, followed by Canada, Europe, Australia and the United States.

Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States raise over 4.5 million acres (18,000 km²) and are major exporters of peas.

[42] In modern times peas are usually boiled or steamed, which breaks down the cell walls and makes them taste sweeter and the nutrients more bioavailable.

In Japan, China, Taiwan and some Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia, peas are roasted and salted, and eaten as snacks.

[51] In Chinese cuisine, the tender new growth [leaves and stem] dou miao (豆苗; dòu miáo) are commonly used in stir-fries.

[citation needed] In Greece, Tunisia, Turkey, Cyprus, and other parts of the Mediterranean, peas are made into a stew with lamb and potatoes.

[citation needed] In Hungary and Serbia, pea soup is often served with dumplings and spiced with hot paprika.

[57] In East Asia, pea sprouts or shoots (豆苗; 완두순)[58] were once dedicated cuisine[clarification needed] when the plant was less highly available.

[62] Mendel chose peas for his experiments because he could grow them easily, pure-bred strains were readily available,[63] and the structure of the flowers protect them from cross-pollination, and cross pollination was easy.

He studied later generations of self pollinated plants, and performed crosses to determine the nature of the pollen and egg cells.

[67] Favism, or Fava-bean-ism, is a genetic deficiency of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase that affects Jews, other Middle Eastern Semitic peoples, and other descendants of the Mediterranean coastal regions.

In this condition, the toxic reaction to eating most, if not all, beans is hemolytic anemia, and in severe cases, the released circulating free hemoglobin causes acute kidney injury.

[74] A variety of diseases affect peas through a number of pathogens, including insects, viruses, bacteria and fungi.

[77] The pea moth can be a serious pest producing caterpillars the resemble small white maggots in the pea-pods.