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.