Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)

Phaseolus vulgaris, commonly called the common bean, is a herbaceous annual legume of the family Fabaceae grown in bush forms twenty to sixty centimeters tall and climbing forms extending two to three meters, producing beans inside pods. It is the most consumed bean species in the world, with global production reaching twenty eight million tonnes in 2022, led by India at about twenty three percent of output, followed by Brazil and Myanmar. The species originated in the Americas and was independently domesticated roughly eight thousand years ago in both Mexico and Central America and in the southern Andes, giving rise to two genetically distinct pools, Mesoamerican and Andean. Beyond dried mature beans, the plant is eaten as unripe green pods and occasionally as leafy greens, though raw beans contain the toxic compound phytohaemagglutinin, which thirty minutes of boiling reliably deactivates.