Vigna umbellata
(Thunb.) Ohwi & H. Ohashi
Rice bean, Climbing-mountain-bean
(c) Chuangzao, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Chuangzao
(c) Aravinth, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Aravinth
(c) Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Seeds, Leaves, Pods, Sprouted Seeds, Vegetable
The young pods and ripe seeds are eaten cooked; dried seeds are boiled and served with rice or used in soups and stews. Young leaves are also eaten. Seeds are used for sprouting.
Where to Find It
A tropical plant. It grows from 0-1800 m altitude in the tropics. It suits wet climates. It occasionally becomes self sown in coastal grasslands. It needs a sunny protected position. They are drought and frost tender. It can grow in arid places.
Africa, Angola, Asia, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central Africa, China, Congo, Costa Rica, Cuba, East Africa, East Timor, Fiji, Ghana, Haiti, Himalayas, India, Indochina, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Laos, Liberia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Myanmar, Nepal, Northeastern India, Pacific, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, PNG, Philippines, Reunion, SE Asia, Sierra Leone, Sikkim, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, West Africa, West Indies, West Timor, Zambia,
How to Identify
A herb. It is a climbing bean plant with a slender hairy vine. It is twining and an annual plant. It grows from seed each year. It grows to 1.5-3 m long. Stems are hairy. Leaves have 3 leaflets which can vary in shape. They are mostly oval and 3-13 cm long by 1.5-7 cm wide. They taper towards the tip and are rounded at the base. Usually they are hairy. The leaf stalks are 3-16 cm long. Flowers are about 1.5 cm long in dense cone shaped clusters. These flowering stalks can be 3-10 cm long. The flowers are yellow. The fruit are straight pods about 10 cm long and 5 mm wide. Seeds are small (5-8 mm long) and yellow to brown. The pods split open easily. The seeds can be yellow, green, brown, red, black or mottled.
How to Grow
It is grown by seeds. Seed collection is easy. Seeds often have a hard skin which must be broken (eg by scraping) before seeds will germinate easily.
Propagation: Seed - sow in situ.
Other Uses
The plant is sown as a cover crop, green manure and living hedge. As a green manure, rice bean can already be ploughed at about 30 days after sowing. Rice bean is mostly grown as an intercrop, especially of maize.
Wikipedia
Source ↗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. In the past it was widely grown as lowland crop on residual soil water after the harvest of long-season rice, but it has been displaced to a great extent where shorter duration rice varieties are grown. Ricebean grows well on a range of soils. It establishes rapidly and has the potential to produce large amounts of nutritious animal fodder and high quality grain.
Other Information
It is a commercially cultivated vegetable. Seen occasionally in several areas in Papua New Guinea but only of minor importance as a food.
Notes
There are about 150 Vigna species. They are mostly in the tropics.
Names & Synonyms
Beli, Be-nauk, Be-pwe, Be-sang, Be-te, Be-tyel, Dau-gao, Dau nhonhe, Frijol de arroz, Ghurush, Gurounsk, Haricot riz, Kachang enjing, Kachang ruji, Kachang sepalit, Kachang uchi, Katjang otji, Mambi-bean, Masyan, Masyang ko dal, Mugi tasud, Ning krung-shapre, Oriental-bean, Pau maia, Pe-nauk-saung, Pe-yin, Red bean, Reisbohne, Rumbaiya, Sanndaek angkat miehs, Shima tsuru azuki, Sita mas, Sutri, Tua deng, Tua pe, Tua pi
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