P. sativum is an annual plant, with a life cycle of one year. It is a cool season crop
grown in many parts of the world; planting can take place from winter through to
early summer depending on location. The average pea weighs between 0.1 and 0.36
grams.[3] The species is used as a vegetable, fresh, frozen or canned, and is also
grown to produce dry peas like the split pea. These varieties are typically called field
peas.

The wild pea is restricted to the Mediterranean basin and the Near East. The earliest
archaeological finds of peas come from Neolithic Syria, Turkey and Jordan. In Egypt,
early finds date from ca. 4800–4400 BC in the Nile delta area, and from ca.
3800–3600 BC in Upper Egypt. The pea was also present in Georgia in the 5th
millennium BC. Farther east, the finds are younger. Peas were present in Afghanistan
ca. 2000 BC, in Harappa, Pakistan, and in northwest India in 2250–1750 BC. In the
second half of the 2nd millennium BC this pulse crop appears in the Gangetic basin
and southern India.
The modern-day garden pea is thought to have originated from the field pea that was
native to central Asia and Europe and has been consumed by man for thousands and
thousands of years. In fact, peas are mentioned in the Bible and were prized by the
ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece and Rome.

Yet, it was not until the 16th century, when cultivation techniques created more
tender varieties, that people began to consume peas in their fresh state as opposed
to just eating dried peas. It seems that the Chinese, a culture that had consumed
this legume as far back as 2000 BC, were the first ones to consume both the seeds
and the pods as a vegetable.

The French king Louis XIV popularized peas in the 17th century by making them an
item of high regard on the menus of parties held at his palace; it is suggested that
snow peas were developed in Holland around the same time. Peas were introduced
into United States soon after the colonists first settled in this country.

In the 19th century during the early developments of the study of genetics, peas
played an important role. The monk and botanist, Gregor Mendel used peas in his
plant-breeding experiments.

It was only recently, in the 1970s, that sugar snap peas were developed, the result
of a cross between garden peas and snow peas. Today, the largest commercial
producers of fresh peas are the United States, Great Britain, China, Hungary and
India.
This food is very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good
source of Protein, Vitamin A, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Magnesium,
Phosphorus and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin
K, Thiamin and Manganese.