Plant Name
Scientific Name: Macroptilium lathyroides
Synonym: Phaseolus lathyroides
Common Names: Wild Bushbean, Wild Pea Bean, Phasey Bean, Cow Pea, Cowpea, Wild Bush Bean
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Annual, Biennial, Perennial
Growth Habit: Vine, Herb/Forb
Hawaii Native Status: Introduced. This naturalized cattle forage plant is native to Central America, South America, and the West Indies.
Flower Color: Blood red
Height: To 5 feet (1.5 m) tall
Description: The pea-shaped flowers bloom in pairs and have a spirally twisted keel petal. The seed pods are hairy, slender, and up to 4 inches (10 cm) long. When mature, the pods explosively open to eject the small, pitted, brown or marbled brown and black beans. The leaves have 3 narrowly oval to lanceolate leaflets and lanceolate stipules. The stems are slender, green, and erect, trailing, or twining.
Purple Bushbean (Macroptilium atropurpureum) is similar in appearance, but it has black flowers and broader leaflets.
Wild Bushbean grows along roadsides, in pastures, and in other sunny, open, disturbed areas.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae – Pea family
Genus: Macroptilium (Benth.) Urb. – bushbean
Species: Macroptilium lathyroides (L.) Urb. – wild bushbean
More About This Plant