We review the history of arable naturalization and initial cropping of five legume species in Hungary in the period between the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. Nowadays, these species have an increasing importance as green manure and seed production. The cultivation of Vicia villosa Roth, an old established plant in the Carpathian Basin of Near Eastern origin, was started for green forage, mainly owing to encouraging experiences in Germany. It produced good yields even among unfavourable weather and edaphic conditions. Although Vicia pannonica Crantz is likely native to Hungary, it was brought into cultivation due to reports of satisfactory farming experiences from the USA. It had a good seed production capacity and also provided tasty forage in Hungary as well. Vicia sativa L. was probably cultivated already in the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages in the Carpathian Basin. Later, in the transitional period between the three-field system and crop rotation, its foreign cultivars were re-naturalised and sowed into the fallow as a forage crop. Trifolium incarnatum L., a plant of Mediterranean origin, was first cultivated in Hungary as a stubble–sowed crop, or for clover replacement, but later it became a relevant seed–export item. The seeds of Trifolium alexandrinum L. for its first Hungarian field experiments probably came directly from Africa. Mostly, it was cropped as a secondary sowed forage in irrigated fields and as a shift crop in rice growing areas.