Runner Bean
Runner Bean
Food Plant
A tall climbing bean grown for its long green pods and bright scarlet, bee-friendly flowers — its stems always twining in one fixed direction.
💡 Fun Facts
- We grow runner beans up tall canes for their long green pods, which we eat cooked.
- Its bright scarlet flowers are grown for their beauty too, and bumblebees love them.
- The stems always twine round their support in the same direction — spiralling anticlockwise as they climb.
📅 Through the Year
- Flowering:July to September
- Fruiting:August to October
Name Story
Phaseolus coccineus
means “the little scarlet bean”
What does its name mean?
- Phaseolus — little beanLatin, a ‘little’ form of phaselus ‘a bean’
- coccineus — scarlet, bright redLatin coccum, the source of scarlet dye
‘Little bean’ and ‘scarlet’ — and both are true: it is a bean, and its flowers are a brilliant, fiery red. You might hear that the first word means ‘little boat’, but that is back to front: the boat was named after the bean-pod’s shape, not the other way round.