Optical lenses are named after lentils, not the other way round
The glass lens takes its name from the Latin lens, meaning lentil, because the classic shape resembles the seed. Roman families took names from legumes too: Cicero from the chickpea and possibly Lentulus from the lentil. Charred lentils from a Greek cave date to 11,000 BC, making this one of humanity's oldest foods.
Lentils were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent and spread to Europe, North Africa and the Indo-Gangetic plain. Beyond the Franchthi Cave find in Greece, carbonised seeds turn up at Tell Ramad in Syria, Hacilar in Turkey and Tepe Sabz in Iran, several dating between roughly 6000 and 5000 BC. Biblical passages describe ancient Israelites eating them roasted or stewed. The main wild ancestor is Lens orientalis, and domestication brought pods that stay closed and seeds that sprout without dormancy.
The plant is a bushy annual about 30 to 50 centimetres tall, with upper leaves turned into tendrils and pods holding, usually, two seeds each. When a lentil germinates, its seed leaves stay underground inside the seed coat, which shields it from frost, wind and insects. Flowers pollinate themselves, opening from the bottom of the branch upward over about two weeks. Botanists agree the group contains seven taxa but disagree whether they are distinct species, and the old genus Lens is now treated as a section of Vicia.
Market types depend on seed coat and inner colour. Red lentils have orange-red cotyledons and are often sold hulled; Australia grows the most. Green and brown lentils, led by Canada, rarely hold their shape and suit soups. Tiny Beluga lentils, first selected at Canada's Indian Head research station and once grown as fodder, became a designer food in the 1990s thanks to their caviar-like look. Marbled Puy lentils carry protected French designation, while Spanish Brown types are not actually Spanish in origin; the Pardina cultivar came from an American cross.
Lentils dislike waterlogging and grow best in deep sandy loam near neutral pH. They also enrich soil, and cereals planted after them yield more, possibly thanks to nitrogen fixation. In parts of West Asia and North Africa they are sown before snowfall and grow as it melts, often giving much higher yields. World production reached 7 million tonnes in 2023, with Australia, Canada and India supplying 72 per cent.
Source: Lentil
