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Plant · P-234
Fava Bean
Vicia faba
Fava bean is a broad bean that thrives in cool weather and skips the hot, humid stretch that kills snap beans, planted in fall for a spring harvest. Both the immature and the fully ripened seed are eaten, and the leaves cook up like spinach - a second harvest most growers never touch. Its roots fix nitrogen and are best left in the ground at harvest so the next crop gets the benefit, and the whole plant makes a fast, bulky winter green manure. One real hazard: people with an inherited enzyme deficiency called favism can get sick from eating it, and in severe cases even from its pollen.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- Not yet recorded
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 6.5–9
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 2–6 ft
- Mature spread
- 12–18 in
- Plant spacing
- 3–12 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- None
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
Adzuki Bean
Vigna angularis (Willd.) Ohwi & H.Ohashi
Adzuki is the odd one out among the beans in this group: a very hot summer is actively too hot for it, since heat above about 35C damages…
Herbaceous · USDA 3–11
African Eggplant
Solanum aethiopicum
African Eggplant, also called gboma or scarlet eggplant, is a West and Central African relative of eggplant that gives two harvests from one…
Herbaceous · USDA 8–12
African Rice
Oryza glaberrima
African Rice is a West African grain crop domesticated from a wild relative along the Niger river around 3,000 years ago, still grown as…
Herbaceous
Agrimony
Agrimonia eupatoria
Agrimony is a slender herbaceous perennial of sunny, disturbed ground across Europe and western Asia, grown mainly for the tannin-rich leaves…
Herbaceous · USDA 5–9
Alfalfa
Medicago sativa
Alfalfa is a deep-rooted perennial legume grown worldwide as one of the richest forage crops available, its taproot running six metres or…
Herbaceous · USDA 4–11
Aloe Vera
Aloe vera
Aloe Vera is a stemless, clump-forming succulent with thick, spiny-edged leaves that store a clear gel used to soothe burns, wounds and skin…
Herbaceous · USDA 10–12
The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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