Sword Bean (Canavalia gladiata) is a species of leguminous crop in the family Fabaceae, cultivated in tropical and warm temperate Asia. It is an annual crop usually grown as as fodder, green manure or as a cover crop. It is also known as Sword Jackbean, Jamaican horse bean, Poroto sable, Pois sabre, Bengal butter bean, Babricorn bean, Pearson bean, and Wonder bean. In Africa and Asia, the fruits are eaten as a vegetable.
Sword bean is a stout perennial, vigorous, deep rooted, trailing vine with runners up to 10 m long. It has coarse trifoliate leaves and bears pink and white pea-like flowers, 2.5-4 cm across. The plant produces long, thickened pods, 30 cm long and 5 cm wide. Each pod contains 5-8 elliptical, flattened, red to brown seeds, up to 3 cm long.
Young pods are sometimes eaten fresh , but usually boiled or steamed. Mature seeds are boiled, and dry seeds are often boiled in 2-3 changes of water, and then soaked overnight and boiled again. Green pods are harvested 55-150 days after planting, and 180-300 days for mature seeds.
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