Beans: Taxonomy

Beans are of the order Fabales and the family Leguminosae, or Fabaceae, known as legumes or pulses—terms applicable both to the plants as a whole and to their edible pods and seeds. Beans inhabit several genera, but the most important for culinary study are Phaseolus, Vigna, Vicia, and Glycine. In these genera are almost all the most familiar species. For example, among beans not native to the Americas are Glycine maximus, the soybean so crucial to the Asian diet (and global agribusiness), which, along with Vigna radiata, the mung bean, is the main source of bean sprouts; Vigna angularis, the small, red adzuki bean also of Asia; Vigna unguiculata, the African cowpea, known more widely in the United States as the black-eyed pea; and Vicia faba, the European broad bean or fava bean, which arrived in America with the colonists. American species generally belong to the genus Phaseolus, such as Phaseolus coccineus, the runner or scarlet bean; Phaseolus lunatus (also called Phaseolus limensis), the lima or butter bean; and Phaseolus vulgaris, whose many varieties fall under the umbrella term “haricot bean.” (That the fame of haricot beans would spread across the world with a French name stemmed from the chance resemblance of “haricot” to the Aztec word, ayacotl or ayecotl.) Phaseolus includes black (turtle) beans, white (cannellini) beans, green (snap, French, or string) beans, navy (pea) beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, flageolets, and more (these terms sometimes overlap).