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Vigna umbellata
Also called Oriental Bean, Climbing Mountain Bean, Mambi Bean
Rice bean (Vigna umbellata) is a warm-season annual twining legume grown mainly for its small dried beans, and also used as fodder and green manure. It is usually grown as an intercrop with maize, sorghum or cowpea, and it is a short-lived vine that needs warmth and a long frost-free season.
Vigna umbellata, previously Phaseolus calcaratus, is a warm-season annual vine legume with yellow flowers and small edible beans. It is commonly called ricebean or rice bean. To date, it is little known, little researched, and little exploited. It is regarded as a minor food and fodder crop and is often grown as intercrop or mixed crop with maize (Zea mays), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) or cowpea (V. unguiculata), as well as a sole crop in the uplands, on a very limited area. Like the other Asiatic Vigna species, ricebean is a fairly short-lived warm-season annual. Grown mainly as a dried pulse, it is also important as a fodder, a green manure and a vegetable. Ricebean is most widely grown as an intercrop, particularly of maize, throughout Indo-China and extending into southern China, India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
Catechin-7-O-glucoside can be found in the seed of V. umbellata. In vitro, this compound has an antioxidant activity leading to a cytoprotective effect.
Ricebean plays an important role in human, animal and soil health improvement. All varieties seem to be good sources of protein, essential amino acids, essential fatty acids and minerals (Mohan & Janardhanan, 1994), and the dried seeds make an excellent addition to a cereal-based diet.
Moth bean · Adzuki bean · Hairypod cowpea · Black gram · Mung bean · Bambarra groundnut · Catjang · Asparagus bean · Black-eyed pea · Cowpea · Cowpea
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Vigna umbellata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
