NOTE: several of the varieties listed here were donated to the seed bank from seed savers in other regions. We have found many of them to grow well in the Ozarks, but some of them still need to be tested in this climate. We need feedback from growers to improve this seedbank. Please let us know your experience with any of these varieties. Click here for our "feedback" form
A Native American snap bean proven in the test of time. The gorgeous chocolate-brown, dry beans are adorned with marbleized, tan patterns.
Six Nations Bush Bean
A dry shell bean of the horticultural kind used by the Iroquois nation
Milta Black Tepary
This desert adapted variety is very productive
SPECIES: Phaselous acutifolius
Warihio Tepary
Flattened, white seeds, prolific especially in hot weather; a staple of the Mexican Sonoran bioregion. Irrigation improves yield. Drought tolerant and resistant
Adventist Bush Bean
This variety is productive and matures early
Banner Fava Bean
(vicia faba)
Small seeded variety; makes excellent green manure; one of the cold hardiest of fava bean plants. Edible.These plants grow exceedingly well in the Pacific NW. Some, particularly the small-seeded varieties, survive the winters well and all make seeds that can be fermented into free amino acids from the cotyledonary leaf proteins, like is done routinely from soybeans to make miso. These are some of the best nitrogen-fixing and green manure plants available. Small seeds can be bitter; the larger ones tending to be sweeter and more palatable
Hopi Tan Lima
American species, makes a delicious, sweet soup. Seeds are tan with varied black markings. Two to three seeded flat pods and a preference for hot weather. Sow borage (Borago officinalis) in close proximity to these plants since it attracts their bumblebee pollinators.
Pods to 14 inches, seeds lavender with black spots grow excellent snap pods.
Couch's Bush Bean
One of the relic beans collected by Preacher Couch in the Ozarks; productive bushes to 2ft with deep chocolate brown colored seeds
Hopi Black Bush Bean
Small, almost-round seeds on small plants. Selected in the Southwest
Gill's Relic Bush Bean
Brown seeds from good flavored 6 inch snap beans
Kebarika Bush Bean
African shell bean; high productivity with attractive, purple-mottled seeds
Kenearly Bush Bean
From Thelma Crawford, a productive bush with plump, elongated buff seeds with figure-like markings around the hilum
Missouri Bill's Bush Bean
Very productive, large, starchy soup bean; 6in pods, 6 seeds/pod; from the Oregon Trail, 1880's
Odawa Indian Bush Bean
Semi-vining bushes with large leaves, white flowers and large pods. Grown in the Wright family for 3 generations after receiving the seeds from the Odawa of Harbor Springs, MI. Seeds are very similar to the Japanese Pole Bean.
Pawnee Bush Bean
From Native Amer-indians, this brown and white shell and soup bean resembles Jacob's Cattle.
Prince Bush Bean
A shell bean obtained from the Seed Saver's Exchange in Decorah, IA, more than a decade ago. Twenty inch bushes with attractive red-purple seeds marked with gold
New Mexico Cave Pole Beans
Original seeds recovered during a 1968 archeological dig in New Mexico that was actually looking for pigmy elephants. In their excavations, they found the beans in a clay pot sealed with pine pitch. The beans were carbon dated and found to be 1500 years old
Japanese Twiner
A uniquely-marked seed, distinctive.
Flageolet
A classic french bean. Seeds are a mixture of pale green and white
Regalfin
One of the elegant thin and long French string beans
