Description from
Flora of China
Herbs annual, 12-80 cm tall. Stem much branched, erect, glandular hairy. Leaves imparipinnate with a terminal leaflet; stipules leaflike, unequal, margin toothed; leaflets 3-8-paired, elliptic, 7-17 × 3-10 mm, glandular hairy, margin dentate at least in distal half. Raceme 1- or 2-flowered; pedicels 5-25 mm. Calyx campanulate, deeply toothed, glandular hairy. Corolla white, light blue, or purple-red, 8-10 mm, glandular hairy. Legume pendulous, inflated, ovate in outline, (1.5-)2-3.5 × 1-1.7 cm, 1-4-seeded, pubescent and glandular hairy. Seeds 5-15 × 5-10 mm. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Aug-Sep. 2n = 16.
Cicer arietinum was possibly derived from C. reticulatum Ladizinsky in Neolithic SE Turkey (Mabberley, Plant-Book, ed. 3, 187. 2008).
The seeds are edible (chick peas, garbanzo beans).
Cultivated as a crop; 2000-2700 m. Gansu, Hebei, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Taiwan, Xinjiang [widely cultivated elsewhere; of cultivated origin].
