Green bean
Phaseolus vulgaris · Legume family
Plant portrait
French beans form leaves with three leaflets, small flowers and then elongated pods. Dwarf and climbing varieties bear green, yellow or purple pods.
Harvested part
The young pods, used as a vegetable before the seeds fully develop.
What to watch for
Look for the first pods among the leaves and watch them lengthen. Seeds showing clearly through a pod indicate a later stage than is usually wanted for French beans.
Growth stages of the green bean
Plotilo illustrates the green bean in 7 stages in 3D: seed, small sprout, young plant, growing, flowering, developing fruit and harvest. The models show typical shapes; they do not predict how long growth takes.
- Seed
Starting from a seed. It is shown on the surface to make it visible in this illustration.
- Small sprout
A short first stem and its first small leaves emerge.
- Young plant
The young plant carries more leaves and starts to take its own shape.
- Growing
Leaves and stems develop. Their shape depends on the species.
- Flowering
Flowers are shown before fruit begins to form.
- Developing fruit
Fruit begins to develop on the plant.
- Harvest
An illustration of the harvested part. Roots are made visible for clarity; this image does not confirm actual maturity.
Same botanical family
Same botanical family as the green bean (the legume family): the pea, the broad bean, the American groundnut, the Lima bean, the runner bean and the yardlong bean. Gardeners usually avoid growing the same family in the same spot several years in a row: that is the idea behind crop rotation.