''Phaseolus'' (bean, wild bean) is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of herbaceous to woody annual and perennial vines in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

containing about 70

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, all native to the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, primarily

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...

. It is one of the most economically important legume genera. Five of the species have been

domesticated Domestication is a sustained multi-generational relationship in which humans assume a significant degree of control over the reproduction and care of another group of organisms to secure a more predictable supply of resources from that group. A ...

since

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

times for their

bean A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...

s: '' P. acutifolius'' (tepary bean), '' P. coccineus'' (runner bean), '' P. dumosus'' (year bean), '' P. lunatus'' (lima bean), and '' P. vulgaris'' (common bean). Most prominent among these is the

common bean ''Phaseolus vulgaris'', the common bean, is a herbaceous annual plant grown worldwide for its edible dry seeds or green bean, green, unripe pods. Its leaf is also occasionally used as a Leaf vegetable, vegetable and the straw as fodder. Its Pla ...

, ''P. vulgaris'', which today is cultivated worldwide in tropical, semitropical, and temperate

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...

Ecology

''Phaseolus'' species are used as food plants by the

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e of some

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) is an order (biology), order of insects that includes butterfly, butterflies and moths (both are called lepidopterans). About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 Family (biology), families and 46 Taxonomic r ...

species, including

common swift The common swift (''Apus apus'') is a medium-sized bird, superficially similar to the barn swallow or house martin but somewhat larger, though not stemming from those passerine species, being in the order Apodiformes. The resemblances between t ...

garden dart The garden dart (''Euxoa nigricans'') is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is distributed throughout much of the Palearctic. Temperate regions of Europe, Central Asia and North Asia, as well as the mountains of North Africa. Absent from polar ...

ghost moth The ghost moth or ghost swift (''Hepialus humuli'') is a moth of the family Hepialidae. It is common throughout Europe, except for in the far south-east. Female ghost moths are larger than males, and exhibit sexual dimorphism with their differ ...

Hypercompe albicornis ''Hypercompe albicornis'' is a moth of the family Erebidae first described by Augustus Radcliffe Grote in 1865. It is found on Cuba. Larvae have been recorded feeding on ''Helianthus'', ''Luffa ''Luffa'' is a genus of tropical and subtropi ...

'', '' H. icasia'' and the

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed or ground spice of several species of the genus ''Myristica''. ''Myristica fragrans'' (fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg) is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fruit: nutmeg, from its seed, an ...

Etymology

The generic name ''Phaseolus'' was introduced by

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in 1753,Linnaeus, ''

Species Plantarum ' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial names and was the ...

'' 2:623, cited in

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...

br>''s.v.'' 'phaseolin'
/ref> from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''phaseolus'', a

diminutive A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...

of ''phasēlus'', in turn borrowed from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

φάσηλος '

cowpea The cowpea (''Vigna unguiculata'') is an annual herbaceous legume from the genus ''Vigna''. Its tolerance for sandy soil and low rainfall have made it an important crop in the semiarid regions across Africa and Asia. It requires very few input ...

', of unknown origin. The Latin word ''phaseolus'' is often incorrectly glossed as 'kidney bean', a New World crop.

br>''s.v.'' 'phaseolin'
/ref>

Taxonomy

Previous classifications placed a number of other well-known

legume A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock f ...

species in this genus, but they were subsequently reassigned to the genus ''

Vigna ''Vigna'' is a genus of plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution.Aitawade, M. M., et al. (2012)Section ''Ceratotropis'' of subgenus ''Ceratotropis'' of ''Vigna'' (Leguminosae–Papilionoideae) in India with a new ...

'', sometimes necessitating a change of species name. For example, older literature refers to the

mung bean The mung bean (''Vigna radiata''), alternatively known as the green gram, maash ( fa, ماش٫ )٫ mūng (), monggo, or munggo (Philippines), is a plant species in the legume family.Brief Introduction of Mung Bean. Vigna Radiata Extract G ...

as ''Phaseolus aureus'', whereas more modern sources classify it as ''Vigna radiata''. Similarly, the snail bean '' Vigna caracalla'' was discovered in 1753 and in 1970 moved from ''Phaseolus'' to ''Vigna''. The modern understanding of ''Phaseolus'' indicates a genus

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

only to the New World.

Species

Species have been organized into eight groups based on phylogenetic clades: Filiformis group *'' Phaseolus angustissimus'' A. Gray *'' Phaseolus filiformis''—slimjim bean *'' Phaseolus carterae'' Leptostachyus group *'' Phaseolus leptostachyus'' *'' Phaseolus macvaughii'' *'' Phaseolus micranthus'' Lunatus group *'' Phaseolus augusti'' *'' Phaseolus bolivianus'' *''

Phaseolus lunatus A lima bean (''Phaseolus lunatus''), also commonly known as the butter bean, sieva bean, double bean, Madagascar bean, or wax bean is a legume grown for its edible seeds or beans. Origin and uses ''Phaseolus lunatus'' is found in Meso- and Sou ...

''—lima bean, butter bean *'' Phaseolus pachyrrhizoides'' *'' Phaseolus viridis'' *'' Phaseolus mollis'' Pauciflorus group *'' Phaseolus pauciflorus'' *'' Phaseolus parvulus'' *'' Phaseolus perplexus'' *'' Phaseolus pluriflorus'' *'' Phaseolus tenellus'' Pedicellatus group *'' Phaseolus altimontanus'' *'' Phaseolus dasycarpus'' *'' Phaseolus esperanzae'' *'' Phaseolus grayanus'' *'' Phaseolus laxiflorus'' *'' Phaseolus neglectus'' *'' Phaseolus pedicellatus'' *'' Phaseolus texensis'' Polystachios group *'' Phaseolus albinervus'' *'' Phaseolus jaliscanus'' *'' Phaseolus juquilensis'' *'' Phaseolus maculatus''—spotted bean *'' Phaseolus marechalii'' *'' Phaseolus polystachios'' *'' Phaseolus reticulatus'' *'' Phaseolus ritensis'' *'' Phaseolus smilacifolius'' Tuerckheimii group *'' Phaseolus chiapasanus'' *'' Phaseolus gladiolatus'' *'' Phaseolus hintonii'' *'' Phaseolus oligospermus'' *'' Phaseolus tuerckheimii'' *'' Phaseolus xanthrotrichus'' *'' Phaseolus zimapanensis'' Vulgaris group *''

Phaseolus acutifolius ''Phaseolus acutifolius'', also known as the tepary bean, is a legume native to the southwestern United States and Mexico and has been grown there by the native peoples since pre-Columbian times. It is more drought-resistant than the common bean ...

''—tepary bean *'' Phaseolus albescens'' *''

Phaseolus coccineus ''Phaseolus coccineus'', known as runner bean, scarlet runner bean, or multiflora bean, is a plant in the legume family, Fabaceae. Another common name is butter bean, which, however, can also refer to the lima bean, a different species. It is ...

''—runner bean *'' Phaseolus costaricensis'' *'' Phaseolus dumosus''—year bean *'' Phaseolus parvifolius'' *'' Phaseolus persistentus'' *''

Phaseolus vulgaris ''Phaseolus vulgaris'', the common bean, is a herbaceous annual plant grown worldwide for its edible dry seeds or green, unripe pods. Its leaf is also occasionally used as a vegetable and the straw as fodder. Its botanical classification, alo ...

''—common bean, French bean, black bean, kidney bean, pinto bean, green bean Uncategorized *'' Phaseolus amblyosepalus'' *'' Phaseolus anisotrichos'' *'' Phaseolus brevicalyx'' *'' Phaseolus chacoensis'' *'' Phaseolus cibellii'' *'' Phaseolus galactoides'' *'' Phaseolus glabellus'' *'' Phaseolus leucanthus'' *'' Phaseolus macrolepis'' *'' Phaseolus massaiensis'' *'' Phaseolus microcarpus'' *'' Phaseolus nelsonii'' *'' Phaseolus oaxacanus'' *'' Phaseolus plagiocylix'' *'' Phaseolus polymorphus'' *'' Phaseolus sonorensis'' *'' Phaseolus vulcanicus''

Allergenicity

The ''Phaseolus'' plant has an OPALS plant allergy scale rating of 4 out of 10, indicating moderate potential to cause allergic reactions, exacerbated by over-use of the same plant throughout a garden. Leaves can cause skin rash and old plants often carry

Rust (fungus) Rusts are plant diseases caused by pathogenic fungi of the order Pucciniales (previously known as Uredinales). An estimated 168 rust genera and approximately 7,000 species, more than half of which belong to the genus ''Puccinia'', are currently a ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q310438 Fabaceae genera Phaseoleae Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus