What is a hilum?
Soybeans grow in pods similar to peas. During the summer, the soybean plant flowers and produces 20 to 80 pods. Soybean plants are green but the pubescence or hair on the pods range in colour from light yellow to shades of gray and brown. The whole plant will turn brown at maturity. Two to four pea-sized beans grow in each soybean pod. The beans grown commercially in Ontario are pale yellow in colour. Each bean has a small scar, called a hilum, that is either brown or yellow. Traditionally, the dark hilum beans are used for crushing into oil while the light hilum varieties are used for edible soy products. All seeds have a scar, which shows where the seed was joined to the inside of the fruit. The scar on a soybean is called the HILUM. On the hard seed coat there is a little hole through which moisture gets in when the seed is planted.
