I'm growing this vegetable climber. Only the seed is edible, not the cover as is in some varieties. Which is this?

Looks like a type of Phaseolus lunatus, Lima Bean. The cultivar may be hard to track down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage...

Looks a lot like what we in the "south" call a Butter Bean.

Yes, Butter Beans are Lima Beans!

If you were from the south, dave paul, you would know thats wrong!

Butter Beans are in fact a type of Lima Bean, Phaseolus lunatus. Check out the links.

I eat Butter Beans regularly, but being a diabetic, I don't eat butter, which many recipes include. Butter Beans / Lima beans are a great food for diabetics, as they don't cause the blood sugar to raise very much.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-a...

http://www.thekitchn.com/good-...

http://southernfood.about.com/...

Yes, same family.

Same species!

I've noticed the southerners are very touchy about their butter beans!

My understanding is they are what we northerners would call a "baby lima" ?
TK, are they usually eaten as fresh "shelly beans," or dried beans?

I have never seen a dried butterbean sold commercially, only limas. I've only found butterbeans canned. Southerners know that butterbeans are different than limas, and its not because they are buttered, or baby limas.

I like the limas cooked fresh as an entrée. Dried butter beans are great cooked in a soup with ham, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, sea salt, & olive oil. Yum

I've lived in Florida, Texas (mostly Ft. Bliss), and Southern California. I've lived in Hawai'i for 34 years, which is even further South than Texas.
Everyone has different tastes, none of them are wrong. Both butter beans & limas can be found fresh, frozen, and dried.

Me ke aloha!

I'm not at all sure that the stores around here even sell anything called "butter beans." I see I'm going to have to go on an expedition looking for them...

I love the little green baby limas, the big starchy ones, not so much...

But they are Phaseolus lunatus, right?

Interestingly, Dave Paul, your first link actually contradicts you and asserts they are similar, related, but different:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-a...

Personally, I have no opinion, really. I always thought butter beans were probably a type of lima bean, simply because of the shape. What I do know, is that I really like lima beans, but I LOVE butter beans. And not because I'm in the south. I loved them as a kid growing up in Ohio!

OK, I went back and checked the link again. They do say it is the species that lima beans are. But the rest says they are "genetically similar", but different.

I'm so confused. Think I'll go curl up with a big bowl of butter beans.

Yes, two varieties of the same species, Phaseolus lunatus.

Hawai'i is an expensive place to buy food, but frozen, Fordhook Limas, Baby Limas, and Butter Beans are available. Both Limas and Butter Beans are available in cans and dried.
I've grown different varieties of Limas (some purple) and they taste great. I've yet to grow Butter Beans. The season to start them is now!

The main difference I can see in stores is Limas are green, and Butter Beans are beige / whitish. They both vary in size.

Just because a person has never seen something doesn't mean that it does not exist. I once found a piece of 'lightning glass' and I never knew it existed.

This link gives the names and countries of companies selling dried butter beans as well as many other types of dry beans. Yes, Dried butter beans do exist. http://www.21food.com/product/...

Dinu, The beans look similar to ones sold as "Heirloom Christmas Beans"; the color pattern can vary.

Edited to add link with photo:
http://www.americanseedco.com/...
This is the image of the Christmas Lima Beans on the American Seed Co website:

Thanks Ron. What I was getting at is that they are the same species. Not different from a white rose & a red rose being the same species.

Within that, the way a person makes a recipe may determine whether they call them Limas or Butter Beans. Can you find a reference that exactly separates a Lima from a Butter Bean. Color, size, or shape? I've looked at several sites, some say there's no difference, some try to use size & shape as a difference. You can buy large & small Lima Beans, you can buy large & small Butter Beans. They are both Phaseolus lunatus.

In a similar manner, Luther Burbank developed over 150 types of green beans / dried beans. All different, yet all Phaseolus vulgaris.

Maybe the best way to determine what to call them is to leave it up to the person who is preparing dinner for you.

Yes, same family.

texaskitty111 said:Yes, same family.

Not a bean expert, but Aggie, Texas A & M, says "In the South and some other parts of this country lima beans are commonly called "butter beans."" U of Georgia Extension says "Lima beans are often referred to as butter beans, particularly in the South."

Their family would be Fabaceae. Their genus would be Phaseolus. I assume we're agreed that far? So the next stage would be to add the specific epithet, which is given in the references for both beans as lunatus. Even if both butter and lima are the same species, Phaseolus lunatus, they could still be further sub-divided into cultivars/varieties/undetermined rank. Thus they can both be Phaseolus lunatus but still be somewhat genetically different. For example the Wikipedia entry says "The term "butter bean" is widely used for a large, flat and yellow/white variety of lima bean (P. lunatus var. macrocarpus, or P. limensis[4])."

So, even if one goes with that latter distinction, it means that they are both still the same species, i.e. P. lunatus, but that butter beans would simply be a variety thereof. So, same species, same genus, same family, but possibly different variety or type.

I think varieties are really the only difference.
http://sarasota.ifas.ufl.edu/f...

I'm a southerner and I truly thought my grandma called Lima Beans "Butter Beans" cause she cooked them with a lot of butter.