Vigna

Vigna is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. It includes some well-known cultivated species, including many types of beans. Some are former members of the genus Phaseolus. According to Hortus Third, Vigna differs from Phaseolus in biochemistry and pollen structure, and in details of the style and stipules.

Vigna are herbs or occasionally subshrubs. The leaves are pinnate, divided into 3 leaflets. The inflorescence is a raceme of yellow, blue, or purple pea flowers. The fruit is a legume pod of varying shape containing seeds.

Familiar food species include the adzuki bean (V. angularis), the black gram (V. mungo), the cowpea (V. unguiculata), and the mung bean, which is used as a whole bean, a bean paste, or as bean sprouts.

The genus is named after Domenico Vigna, a seventeenth-century Italian botanist and director of the Orto botanico di Pisa.

Selected species

The genus Vigna contains at least 90 species, including:

Subgenus Ceratotropis

Flor

Flor (Spanish and Portuguese for flower) is a winemaking term referring to a film of yeast on the surface of wine and which is important in the manufacture of some styles of sherry. The flor is formed naturally under certain winemaking conditions, from indigenous yeasts found in the region of Andalucía in southern Spain. Normally in winemaking, it is essential to keep young wines away from exposure to air by sealing them in airtight barrels, to avoid contamination by bacteria and yeasts that tend to spoil it. However, in the manufacture of sherries, the slightly porous oak barrels are deliberately filled only about five-sixths full with the young wine, leaving "the space of two fists" empty to allow the flor yeast to take form and the bung is not completely sealed. The flor favors cooler climates and higher humidity, so the sherries produced in the coastal Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María have a thicker cap of flor than those produced inland in Jerez. The yeast gives the resulting sherry its distinctive fresh taste, with residual flavors of fresh bread. Depending on the development of the wine, it may be aged entirely under the veil of flor to produce a fino or manzanilla sherry, or it may be fortified to limit the growth of flor and undergo oxidative aging to produce an amontillado or oloroso sherry.

Pedro Alfonso

"[Pedro] is handsome as Absalom, as strong as Samson, and he possesses the wisdom of Solomon."

Pedro Alfonso or Alfónsez (Latin: Petrus Adefonsi; floruit 1126–1173) was an Asturian magnate, dominating the region from 1139 until his death. He had vast landholdings in the Asturias, the region of León, and "kingdom" of Toledo, including in the cities of León and Toledo themselves, the most important cities of the realm. His commercial dealings were extensive, a sign of his economic power, and he loyally served Alfonso VII and his son Ferdinand II as a military commander and diplomat from 1128 until his death.

Family

Pedro was the son of Alfonso Vermúdez, himself the son of Bermudo Ovéquiz of the Vela family and Jimena Peláez, and Urraca Raimúndez, possibly the daughter of Raymond the Fratricide who had to flee Navarre after participating in the murder of his brother king Sancho IV of Navarre in 1076. Pedro took as his first wife María Fróilaz, daughter of Froila Díaz and widow of Melendo Núñez. Her mother, Estefanía Sánchez, was a daughter of Sancho Garcés, the illegitimate half-brother of Sancho IV of Navarre. They were married by 30 November 1143 and were still together as late as 4 October 1164. They had one daughter named Elvira Pérez, who was Pedro's primary heiress. In December 1174 Elvira donated her father's former estates in Santa Marina and Villaverde to the Order of Calatrava. On 26 June 1175 she made a donation to the Order of Santiago of the "houses, baths, ovens, lands, vineyards, orchards, and gardens" in Toledo as well as the lands in Azaña that she had inherited from her "illustrious" father.