Yard-long Bean

Yard-long Bean

Scientific name:Vigna unguiculata L.

English names: Yard-long Bean, Black- eye Bean.

Local names: Borboti, China Borboti.

Taxonomic position according to Cronquist (1981)

Kingdom         : Plantae
Division           : Magnoliophyta
Class                :Magnoliopsida

Subclass          : Rosidae

Order               : Fabales
Family             : Fabacaeae

Genus              : Vigna

Species            : V. unguiculata

Botanical Description: A climbing, glabrous, annual herb, taproot with large, globular nodules.

Figure: Anatomy of Stem

Figure: Leaf Anatomy of Yard-long bean

Leaves trifoliolate. leaflets 6.5-15.0 cm long, entire or slightly lobed. broadly or narrowly ovate, the lateral ones oblique, petioles stout, grooved, stipules ovate to lanceolate, persistent.

Flowers few in subcapitate racemes, peduncles often exceeding the leaves, bracts attached above the base, 3-5 mm long, deciduous. Calyx up to 1.2 cm long, deltoid, cuspidate. Corolla reddish, twice the calyx. Fruit a pod. 10-40 cm long, slightly depressed between the seeds, glabruos or minutely pilose.

Economic Importance: The dried seeds are important for pulse. Immature pods and seeds are eaten as vegetable. It is a useful fodder plant. The seeds are acrid, laxative, appetizer, galactogogue, tonic and aphrodisiac.

Cultivation of yard-long bean

Table 1. The Yard long bean variety released by BARI and BSMRAU