Bean Seed Varieties

Adzuki

• A native to Japan, adzuki is a dry bean that grows as an erect plant up to 2 feet high. According to the University of Florida Extension Service, these bean seeds are smaller than the average bean, but are twice the size of mung beans. Adzuki seeds are round and usually red, but also appear in green, black-orange, straw-colored and mottled varieties.

Broad

• Depending on where you live, you know broad bean as horse bean, Windsor bean, English bean, tick bean, fava bean, field bean, or pigeon bean. As the name indicates, this bean's seeds are large and also flat, with colors that vary from green to white, brown, purple and black. This is a long cool-season crop that takes five months to mature.

Willow-Leaf Lima

• The University of Florida Extension Service explains that the willow-leaf lima bean is a strain of the pole butter bean from tropical America, probably with its origin in Guatemala. Its edible seeds are smooth and usually white, with some color variations. According to Florida's extension office, you can grow willow-leaf lima beans in the same conditions you'd plant other pole lima beans.

Scarlet Runner

• Besides being edible, the flowering scarlet runner bean is also ornamental, producing 1-inch wide red flowers. The plant grows as a climbing vine that reaches 15 feet and wraps itself around any nearby structure, from antennas to fence posts. Scarlet runner bean seeds are black and violet-black with red spots.

Yard-Long

• The yard-long bean also goes by the names of asparagus bean, Peru bean and snake bean. It climbs on supports up to 12 feet, producing large violet flowers and draping pods. Harvest the 3-foot-long bean pods before they mature to eat them as snap beans.