Phaseolus vulgaris (Phaseolus vulgaris), also known as the common bean, green bean and French bean, among other names, is a herbaceous annual plant grown worldwide for its edible dry seeds or unripe fruit (both commonly called beans). Its leaf is also occasionally used as a vegetable and the straw as fodder. Its botanical classification, along with other Phaseolus species, is as a member of the legume family Fabaceae, most of whose members acquire the nitrogen they require through an association with rhizobia, a species of nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
