page_title: Soybean
section_title: Flowering
hierarchical_section_title: Soybean / Description / Flowering
caption_attribution_description: English: A small insect sits on the purple flower of a soybean plant near the town of Flora, Indiana.
context_page_description: The soybean or soya bean is a species of legume native to East Asia, widely grown for its edible bean, which has numerous uses.
  Traditional unfermented food uses of soybeans include soy milk, from which tofu and tofu skin are made. Fermented soy foods include soy sauce, fermented bean paste, nattō, and tempeh. Fat-free soybean meal is a significant and cheap source of protein for animal feeds and many packaged meals. For example, soybean products, such as textured vegetable protein, are ingredients in many meat and dairy substitutes.
  Soy beans contain significant amounts of phytic acid, dietary minerals and B vitamins. Soy vegetable oil, used in food and industrial applications, is another product of processing the soybean crop. Soybean is the most important protein source for feed farm animals.
context_section_description: Flowering is triggered by day length, often beginning once days become shorter than 12.8 hours. This trait is highly variable however, with different varieties reacting differently to changing day length. Soybeans form inconspicuous, self-fertile flowers which are borne in the axil of the leaf and are white, pink or purple. Depending of the soybean variety, node growth may cease once flowering begins. Strains that continue nodal development after flowering are termed "indeterminates" and are best suited to climates with longer growing seasons. Often soybeans drop their leaves before the seeds are fully mature.
  The fruit is a hairy pod that grows in clusters of three to five, each pod is 3–8 cm (1.2–3.1 in) long and usually contains two to four (rarely more) seeds 5–11 mm in diameter. Soybean seeds come in a wide variety of sizes and hull colors such as black, brown, yellow, and green. Variegated and bicolored seed coats are also common.
caption: Small, purple soybean flowers
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