Hello everybody! I’m the seed steward for the 2026 Vigna/Cowpea Crop Species Mix.
In this year’s mix, we mostly just had Cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata - (Subgenus Plectrotropis)) with a few Rice Beans (Vigna umbellata - (Subgenus Ceratotropis) mixed in.
For those who wish to separate the species (As they belong to different subgenera & won’t cross), here’s how to ID them. Seed Hilum (Aka Bean Seed Belly Button), they look very different, super easy to spot (+ there’s only a very amount of Rice Beans in this years mix, each mix probably has like ~3-10 rice bean seeds in total)
Flowers, they look very different from each other. Flowers of Cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata) can be white or purple but never Yellow & they don’t twist. VS Flowers of Rice Bean (Vigna umbellata) are yellow and twist. Useful when they start to flower.
I’ve also circled in red all the Rice Beans (Vigna umbellata) in this year’s Vigna mix GTS Cover Photo. You can note how different the hilum (Bean seed Belly Button) looks on the highlighted beans compared to all other beans (which are 100% Cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata).
For those who wish to keep everything together, there’s no harm in planting them together. Just note that they won’t cross. Both are delicious & relatively easy to grow.
If there’s enough seed contributions for the next years seed mix, we might have enough to make both into separate mixes. Anyone who is growing other Vigna Species and wants to add them to next years mix, please do so! If you are wonder where which subgenus your Vigna species belongs to, check this list Vigna - Edible Plants Wiki
Here’s a quick summary of commonly grown species. All species in the same subgenus are cross-compatible. Subgenus Ceratotropis
I don’t like to grow my cowpeas all together because they have radically different growth habits. I keep the little bushy ones separated because most others require a vertical support or else they sprawl all over the place.
It’s totally up to you! Just like with Common Beans, Cowpeas also have bush & vine forms (It makes sense to keep these separate as they grow differently & are harvested differently).
Unfortunately there’s no reliable way to tell apart bush vs vine form in Vigna unguiculata or at least that I’m aware of without actually growing them.
Sure! Altho technically these aren’t peas at all & should be called African Beans . I don’t know where why the Pea part came from & why it stuck around in modern common names? Peas are usally reserved for Pisum & Lathyrus but then again Vagina Flower (Clitoria tetrasperma) are also known as Blue Butterfly Pea.
Africa in particularly the western African Region is the center of Diversity for (Vigna unguiculata).
Of the same Vigna unguiculata species, there are also Honey Beans, African Brown Beans & African Red Beans. All of these were found at my African Grocery Store.
However is should be noted there are so many other Edible African Beans too, many of which are also Vigna species such as African Bambara Beans (Vigna subterranea) & the closely related Zombie Pea (Vigna vexillata).
Not to forget Lablab purpureus (Hyacinth Beans) usually associated with India might also have originated from Africa. India seems to have given Lablab Beans more effort towards domestication, same with Italians did with Tomato. Or Russians/Europeans for Aronia Berries (Americans don’t appreciate Aronia - until finally they realized there was anti-oxidant value in them)
So many times throughout history, 1 culture likes a crop more than the culture where it’s actually from . It’s because different cultures value different things & therefore notice different things.
In some ways, each of our landraces are the start of our own mini-culture at home too. We select for things we value, flavors, colors, ect.
I’m pretty sure there is good heat tolerance from both subgenera.
For subgenus Plectrotropis
Some varities of Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) & Zombie Pea (Vigna vexillata) are heat tolerant.
as for subgenus Ceratotropis
the most heat tolerant & drougt tolerant species is Moth Bean (Vigna aconitifolia). This might be the most heat & drought tolerant cultivated edible legume out there (as good if not better than Tepary Beans (Phaseolus acutifolius)).
other Vigna species of Subgenus Ceratotropis are also decently heat tolerant too.
In the mix this year, are the rice beans bushing or vining? I got two types from ECHO a few years ago, one bushing and one vining, but all my plants vined vigorously…except that now I have one volunteer who has a nice bush habit. If I can have a strain which is reliably bushy, then I could use the plants as path edgings, and intercrop in a predictable way with other herbaceous plants…
I’m not sure, probably have to ask @Lowell_McCampbell who submitted them.
That can certainly be done. What seed color did that one bush type make? I’ve tend to notice wild forms of any bean are vining. Bush form is a trait that arose only from domestication it seems.
Techically bush form is simply a determinate bean? much in the same fashion determinate tomatoes are simply bush tomatoes? altho bush zucchinni isn’t determinate (Or maybe it is if you let the fruits fully ripen?)
I’m not familiar with rice beans but there are reliably compact cowpeas. As a rule, that probably has more than one exception the peas of bush types are usually rather small compared to vining types. You can’t tell a lot from color though as most colors and color combos happen in both types, just like with common beans.
True! But I did notice the more kidney bean shaped Cowpeas are usally the Yardlong Types with very long pods. I’ve checked all my yardlong types & they all have long kidney shaped seeds.
I think the yard long are also large vines. I haven’t grown them for a while and don’t remember for sure.
Here is a photo of some very compact bush types. I think the white ones in the middle are Carol Deppe’s norther/southern variety but not sure because I have other small seeded white ones. I much prefer the flavor of the white and tan colored ones over red or black.
My favorite is a larger more spherical solid tan one, but they are vining type and not in the picture. They have a sweetness to them that’s different but just as good as regular sweet peas.
I think so to, altho I’m sure a bush form could easily be bred. I’ve seen some that are semi-bush but the pods aren’t as long.
That’s good to know the flavor differs. Are the black ones similar to how Phaseolus vulgaris black beans taste like? I notice flavor difference between colors in Phaseolus vulgaris but for Vigna unguiculata I’ve only ever tried Black Eyed Peas.
Now is this when the seeds are young/immature & shelled or for fully dried ripe seeds that are cooked? The more spherical shape one does sound interesting. Were they round like this circled one?
Yes, very much like that only a bit lighter in color or maybe that seed is a year or two old as they do darken with age. Cowpeas are a new crop to me; I’ve only been growing them for about five or six years. Since I wasn’t raised with them, I didn’t know how to cook them but figured out they are very good just boiled a little with a bit of onion and maybe a little bacon. They seem to cook a lot faster than dry common beans.
To me the favor follows a common theme in cowpeas and common beans in that I like the lighter colored ones better but they still they don’t taste or cook the same.
It might be possible, but I wouldn’t say easily. I have never seen a natural cross in cowpeas, and I don’t know how easy it would be to hand pollinate. Assuming a cross is found or made that would just be the start of a several year journey, with no guarantee of success.
I’ve noticed the same when I mixed & cooked 5 different types of Phaseolus vulgaris, some varieties remained a bit firmer than others, altogether delicious!
Good to know the trend folllows across different bean Genera too! Probably same thing applies to Subgenus CeratotropisVigna like Adzuki & Rice Beans.
still more experience than me. I’ve had less than a years worth of experience.
Wayyy much easier pollinating big Cowpea flowers than it is tiny Phaseolus flowers, that’s for sure!
At least with Vigna unguiculata you don’t have to deal with a twisted up keel storing all the flowering organs, in Phaseolus you have to carefully sqeeze the flower & pull to open them, that alone is an extra step not needed for Vigna unguiculata because the keel isn’t coiled inside.
As with most things in life! Hence why making promiscuous out-crossing populations is valued!
Within the species it’s relatively easy, even hybrids between Vigna vexillata x Vigna unguiculata shouldn’t be very hard to do (both in the same subgenus Plectotropis).
I planted out a handful of Vigna seeds last week in my “food forest” area under my peach tree. We are forecasted rain next week, so hopefully, it will be enough to get things going with them. Ah, yes, and along a trellis I have between 2 raised beds.
If any of this actually grows, I might have to learn to cook beans, instead of using canned.
Hopefully you get an abundance! I do notice that Vigna type beans seem to have little defence mechanisms to prevent animals & insects eating them. Some other bean relatives seem to have slightly stronger defence mechanisms (Like Lablab purpureus or Lupinus albus). Altho there is a trade off, less toxicty means less cooking & leaching time but that also means less defense from predatation.
The same things that make them taste good to you are the same things that make the beans taste good to the animals who eat them. It’s like selecting against yourself
I’ve never personally cooked Vigna unguiculata but they cook use like common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). Let seeds soak in water overnight, discard leaching water & boil for ~30 (or until tender). I also wonder if you need less water leaching times since Vigna unguiculata have less toxins than some Phaseolus vulgaris. To play it safe I would still leach them as precaution.
What’s cool about lentils & dried peas is that they don’t require leaching, you can just boil them as is (Altho soaking can help them cook faster)
I purchased some yardlong bean seeds from an etsy vendor last year that seemed to specialize in seeds from Asia and they were specifically labeled as bush type yardlong beans. I had issues with getting them going (user error, not seed issue), so cannot confirm the validity of the “bush” claims, but they are supposedly out there. Unfortunately I only have a few of each seed variety available anymore and they aren’t selling anymore.
Nice! There probably do exist bush type forms, if not there soon will be with our breeding efforts
All it takes is crossing the yardlong bean types with the bush habbit types, & keep selecting for both traits until you get your population consistent for both traits.
However there is a downside with bush growth form for yardlong beans, they are gonna get muddy & dirty by touching the ground from how long they are due to being short bush form plants.
I do know there exist this Thailand Semi-vine Long Bean, it’s no where near as long as Yard Long type but it’s slightly longer than typical cowpeas.
. I don’t know where why the Pea part came from & why it stuck around in modern common names? Peas are usally reserved for Pisum & Lathyrus but then again Vagina Flower (Clitoria tetrasperma) are also known as Blue Butterfly Pea.
