Pea bean

Pea beans are several types of common food plants producing beans:

• Pea bean may refer to a variety of edible common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) that has been recorded in Britain since the 16th century.[1] The seeds are unusual in being strongly bicoloured (red-brown and white). The plants are a typical climbing bean. The beans are either eaten in the pod like French beans or they may be harvested when mature and eaten as other dried beans.[2] Many seed catalogues list it as Phaseolus aegypticus[2] - a name unrecorded in the botanical literature. There have been other assertions that it is a form of lablab but horticultural consensus places it simply as a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris,[3] closely related to French beans and haricot beans. The term may be used for navy beans.
• In the US, pea bean is also used to describe small white common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris).
• The same name is used for Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis, also called yard-long bean and cowpea.[4]