Bean
Phaseolus vulgaris L.
Botanical family: Fabaceae
A legume native to Mesoamerica (Phaseolus vulgaris, Fabaceae family), the bean was domesticated several thousand years ago and brought back to Europe after 1492. Cold-sensitive, it's sown after the last frosts.
Full sun
Light, poor soil accepted
Moderate
Frost-tender annual: sown or planted out once all risk of frost has passed; below 10 °C, young plants suffer
An annual killed by frost in your zone
Self-pollinating: the flower fertilises itself
One plant is enough for a crop
Role in permaculture
A nitrogen-fixing legume: in symbiosis with Rhizobium bacteria housed in its root nodules, it fixes nitrogen from the air, first for itself; part of it returns to the soil as its roots and haulm decompose, mainly benefiting the following crops. It belongs to the Three Sisters: maize serves as its stake and squash blankets the ground at its feet. Climbing varieties occupy the vertical layer while dwarf ones fill the low storey, two ways of inhabiting the bed. Its flowers feed bees and bumblebees, and at season's end, cutting the plants at the collar and leaving roots and haulm in place returns part of the nitrogen to the soil; the nitrogen in the seeds leaves with the harvest. Grown ahead of hungry vegetables, it readily opens a rotation.
Good companions
Attract pollinators and beneficial insects
Cover the soil (moisture, fewer weeds)
Act as a living support
Poor companions
Insects attracted or useful
Known pests & diseases
Pests and diseases that commonly affect this plant, tap to learn how to recognise and manage them.
Seasons & availability
Green beans in summer; dried shelling beans keep all winter.
Available: January, February, March, April, July, August, September, October, November, December.
Guidance for the oceanic / temperate climate; it may vary with your region, altitude, exposure and growing method.
Sources
- RHS, « How to Grow French beans » (rhs.org.uk/vegetables/french-beans/grow-your-own)
- La Ferme de Sainte Marthe, « Réussir la culture des haricots communs » (fermedesaintemarthe.com/en/blogs/comment-reussir-la-culture-de/reussir-la-culture-des-haricots-communs)
- Garden Organic, « French bean » (gardenorganic.org.uk/expert-advice/how-to-grow/growing-guides/vegetables-herbs-guides/how-to-grow-french-bean)
Nutritional & medicinal properties
For educational purposes. Not a substitute for medical advice. Effects depend on the form, the dose and personal context.
Precautions & contraindications
Cooking is essential for dried beans to remove the problematic lectins.
Family behaviour: Legumes
In general, Legumes fix nitrogen from the air in most cases, thanks to the Rhizobium in their root nodules. They mainly enrich the soil for the following crops, as their residues decompose. Ideal in a rotation, before nitrogen-hungry plants such as nightshades.
Understanding families means learning one rule per family rather than every pairing one by one. Learn more →
Species & varieties
The best-known species and varieties in France.
Species
Common varieties
Voices of peoples
Paraphrases attributed to their documented sources. Never an invented quote.
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) · North-eastern North America (Great Lakes and St Lawrence Valley)
The bean is one of the 'Three Sisters' (Deohako), with maize and squash, grown together on a single mound. In the Haudenosaunee origin story, the spirits of maize, bean, and squash are born from the body of the daughter of Sky Woman buried in the earth: the bean is received as a gift from the Creator and thought of as a 'sister' bound to the other two. The teaching is about interdependence, the maize offers its stalk as a support, the bean feeds the soil, the squash protects the soil, each giving more in relationship than alone.
Robin Wall Kimmerer (Citizen Potawatomi Nation), Braiding Sweetgrass, Milkweed Editions, 2013, chapitre « The Three Sisters » ; récit d'origine haudenosaunee de Sky Woman documenté dans la littérature ethnographique.
Living knowledge, widely shared and not secret. Precise attribution: the origin story (Sky Woman) is Haudenosaunee; Kimmerer, who conveys its philosophy, is herself Potawatomi, two distinct nations, not to be confused. This is not about 'the Native Americans' in general: the practice and the name 'Three Sisters' are attested first among the Haudenosaunee, but the maize-bean-squash triad also exists among other peoples with their own stories.
Hidatsa (village of Like-a-Fishhook, North Dakota) · Upper Missouri plains, North America; testimony gathered around 1912–1915
Buffalo Bird Woman (Maxidiwiac), a Hidatsa horticulturist born around 1839, describes in detail the growing of beans on the alluvial terraces of the Missouri. She names several distinct varieties, black, red, spotted, 'shield-figured', white, sometimes yellow, sown separately, in hills of three seeds, often between the maize mounds. After drying in the field, the stems were threshed on an old tipi cover spread on the ground: she trod the pods underfoot rather than beating them with a stick, so as not to scatter the seeds. Each variety was sorted and kept separately in its own bag.
Gilbert L. Wilson, Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden: Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians (publié en 1917 sous le titre Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians: An Indian Interpretation), récit à la première personne de Maxidiwiac. Texte intégral, chapitre VI « Beans », numérisé par la University of Pennsylvania (digital.library.upenn.edu).
An 'as-told-to' ethnographic primary source: Wilson transcribes Buffalo Bird Woman's own words. Everyday horticultural knowledge, not ceremonial.