Index / Search / Vigna unguiculata
§1 Plant
Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.
vernacular cowpea — species · Fabaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb, Vine
- Duration
- Annual
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Fabaceae Lindl.
- Genus
- Vigna
§2a
Native status, by region
- L48 Lower 48 States Introduced
- PB Pacific Basin (except Hawaii) Introduced
- PR Puerto Rico Introduced
- VI U.S. Virgin Islands Introduced
§2b
County-level range
· 47 counties across 13 states/territories§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- None
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Medium
- Fire
- None
- Salinity
- Medium
- Anaerobic
- None
- CaCO₃
- None
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- 47 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 120 min.
- Precipitation
- 13–150 in/yr
- pH range
- 6–8
- Root depth
- 6 in min.
- Fertility need
- Medium
- Soil texture
- medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Crown
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Mature height
- 2.5 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Porous
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Purple
- Fruit colour
- Black
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- High
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Summer
- Seed abundance
- High
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Fall
- Spread rate
- Moderate
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 3,600
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Routinely Available
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- High
- Graze palatability
- High
- Palatable, human
- Yes
- Protein potential
- High
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 47 counties across 13 states/territories.
Arkansas view state ↗ 1 I ▾
District of Columbia view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Florida view state ↗ 5 I ▾
Illinois view state ↗ 2 I ▾
Kansas view state ↗ 1 I ▾
Louisiana view state ↗ 14 I ▾
Mississippi view state ↗ 2 I ▾
Missouri view state ↗ 3 I ▾
North Carolina view state ↗ 5 I ▾
Pennsylvania view state ↗ 3 I ▾
South Carolina view state ↗ 3 I ▾
Virginia view state ↗ 2 I ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/VIUN ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/2982583 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T10:50:45Z