Lima bean
Phaseolus lunatus · Legume family
Plant portrait
Lima beans carry three-part leaves and relatively broad pods.
Harvested part
The seeds, intended for suitable culinary preparation.
What to watch for
Watch pods swell; their outer walls conceal developing seeds.
Growth stages of the Lima bean
Plotilo illustrates the Lima 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 Lima bean (the legume family): the green bean, the pea, the broad bean, the American groundnut, 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.