Hu Lu Ba

Trigonella foenum-graecum, fenugreek, is an annual herbaceous legume in the family Fabaceae, believed native to the eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia and cultivated since antiquity across India, the Middle East, North Africa, and southern Europe. The plant grows 30-60 cm tall with erect, sparingly branched stems and a slender taproot bearing nitrogen-fixing nodules. The alternate, trifoliolate leaves resemble those of clover, with obovate, toothed leaflets 2-3 cm long and stipulate petioles, releasing a characteristic aromatic odor when crushed. Solitary or paired pale yellow to whitish, sessile, papilionaceous flowers 12-18 mm long appear in the leaf axils in early summer. The fruit is a long, slender, beaked, slightly curved pod 8-15 cm long containing 10-20 hard, oblong, yellow-brown seeds with a deep diagonal groove dividing each seed into two unequal lobes. The seeds, harvested when fully dry, are the principal medicinal and culinary part.