Pea is a pulse, vegetable or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Formerly 'Pisum sativum', it has been proposed to rename the species as Lathyrus oleraceus. Each pod contains several seeds (peas), which can have green or yellow cotyledons when mature. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and develop from the ovary of a (pea) flower. The name is also used to describe other edible seeds from the Fabaceae such as the pigeon pea, the cowpea, the seeds from several species of Lathyrus and is used as a compound form for example Sturt's desert pea.

वाटाणा हे प्रामुख्याने थंडीत येणारे पीक आहे. वाटाण्याचे पांढरे वाटाणे, हिरवे वाटाणे, पिवळे वाटाणे असे बियांच्या रंगावरून प्रकार पडतात. या पिकाच्या हिरव्या परंतु पूर्ण दाणे भरलेल्या शेंगांना मटार असे म्हणतात.