Phaseolus (bean, wild bean) is a genus of herbaceous to woody annual and perennial vines in the family Fabaceae containing about 70 plant species, all native to the Americas, primarily Mesoamerica.
It is one of the most economically important legume genera. Five of the species have been domesticated since pre-Columbian times for their beans: 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, P. vulgaris, which today is cultivated worldwide in tropical, semitropical, and temperate climates.
Ecology
Phaseolus species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including common swift, garden dart, ghost moth Hypercompe albicornis, H. icasia and the nutmeg.
Taxonomy
The generic name Phaseolus was introduced by Linnaeus in 1753, from the Latin phaseolus, a diminutive of phasēlus, in turn borrowed from Greek φάσηλος phasēlos used for either a species labelled as Vigna sinensis, or "calavance" which is an old name for the chickpea; that word itself is of unknown origin. The Ancient Greeks probably referred to any bean in a pod as phasēlos including those species, mung bean as well as black gram which were brought to them from Asia during their time; the name extended to the New World beans with the introduction of common bean into Europe via Columbian exchange in the 16th century and later given the name Phaseolus vulgaris.
Species have been organized into eight groups based on phylogenetic clades:
Phaseolus angustissimus A. Gray
Phaseolus filiformis—slimjim bean
Phaseolus carterae
