Green beans are the unripe, young fruit and protective pods of various cultivars of the common bean. Immature or young pods of the runner bean, yardlong bean, and hyacinth bean are used in a similar way. Green beans are known by many common names, including French beans, string beans, snap beans, snaps, and the French nameharicot vert. They are also known as Baguio beans in Philippine English, to distinguish them from yardlong beans. Other locals in the vegetable farming regions of the Philippines refer these as "habitchuelas". It is commonly grown in the northern highlands of Benguet, Mountain Province and Nueva Viscaya, and other mid-elevation areas in the country like Bukidnon, Quezon and Laguna. They are distinguished from the many other varieties of beans in that green beans are harvested and consumed with their enclosing pods, before the bean seeds inside have fully matured. An analogous practice is the harvest and consumption of unripened pea pods, as is done with snow peas or sugar snap peas.
Culinary use and nutrition
Green beans are eaten around the world, and are sold fresh, canned, and frozen. They can be eaten raw or steamed, boiled, stir-fried, or baked. They are commonly cooked in other dishes such as soups, stews and casseroles. Green beans can also be pickled, much like cucumbers are. A dish with green beans popular throughout the northern US, particularly at Thanksgiving, is green bean casserole, a dish of green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and French-fried onions. Some US restaurants serve green beans that are battered and fried, such as green bean tempura. Green beans are also sold dried, or fried with vegetables such as carrots, corn, and peas, as vegetable chips. Green beans are a notable source of the flavonolglucuronidemiquelianin, an antioxidant in humans.
Domestication
Green beans were first domesticated in Peru.
Characteristics
The first "stringless" bean was bred in 1894 by Calvin Keeney, called the "father of the stringless bean", while working in Le Roy, New York. Most modern green bean varieties do not have strings.
Plant
Green beans are classified by growth habit into two major groups, "bush" beans and "pole" beans.
Bush beans are short plants, growing to not more than in height, often without requiring supports. They generally reach maturity and produce all of their fruit in a relatively short period of time, then cease to produce. Owing to this concentrated production and ease of mechanized harvesting, bush-type beans are those most often grown on commercial farms. Bush green beans are usually cultivars of the common bean.
Pole beans have a climbing habit and produce a twisting vine, which must be supported by "poles", trellises, or other means. Pole beans may be common beans, runner beans or yardlong beans.
Half-runner beans have both bush and pole characteristics, and are sometimes classified separately from bush and pole varieties. Their runners can be about 3–10 feet long.
Varieties
Over 130 varieties of edible pod beans are known. Varieties specialized for use as green beans, selected for the succulence and flavor of their green pods, are the ones usually grown in the home vegetable garden, and many varieties exist. Beans with various pod colors are collectively known as snap beans, while green beans are exclusively green. Shapes range from thin "fillet" types to wide "romano" types and more common types in between. Yellow-podded green beans are also known as wax beans. All of the following varieties have green pods and are Phaseolus vulgaris, unless otherwise specified:
