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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-232
Lima Bean
Phaseolus lunatus
Lima Bean, also called butterbean, is a tropical perennial legume grown almost everywhere else as a warm-season annual for its starchy shelled seed, with immature seeds cooked like peas in soups and stews, mature seed soaked and hard-boiled or fermented into tempeh, and young pods and leaves eaten as well, though the leaves are often bitter. It fixes nitrogen through root nodules and is used as a cover crop and green manure. It genuinely likes heat and humidity but still drops blossoms in the hottest stretch of summer, so the heaviest pod set comes in early summer and again in September rather than through the peak of the heat. Raw seed contains cyanide-producing compounds, sharper toxicity than most other beans, so soaking and thorough cooking are essential before eating or feeding it out.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 10–12
- Soil
- Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Vine- Soil pH
- 6–8
- Plant type
- Annual
- Mature height
- 6.6–19.7 ft
- Mature spread
- Not yet recorded
- Plant spacing
- 4–8 in
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- None
Keep exploring
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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