Winged Bean

The winged bean is not exactly a household word in this country, nor is it likely to be soon, having just recently arrived and being very sensitive to cold. But, given the virtues of the plant, and its phenomenal growth world-wide, we would do well to get to know it. In 1975 the National Academy of Science published a report on the vegetable, at that time a tropical legume grown almost exclusively in Papua New Guinea and a few areas in Southeast Asia. Since then, the plant has been introduced into seventy or more countries as far-flung as Colombia and Czechoslovakia, with the most substantial production in Papua New Guinea, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and the Philippines. The interest is such that a computerized Winged Bean Information and Documentation Service Center has been set up by the Agricultural Information Bank for Asia.