''Vigna angularis'', also known as the adzuki bean , azuki bean, aduki bean, red bean, or red mung bean, is an
annual vine widely cultivated throughout
East Asia for its small (approximately long)
bean
A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes th ...
. The
cultivars most familiar in East Asia have a uniform red color, but there are also white,
black, gray, and variously
mottled varieties.
Scientists presume ''Vigna angularis'' var. ''nipponensis'' is the
progenitor
In genealogy, the progenitor (rarer: primogenitor; german: Stammvater or ''Ahnherr'') is the – sometimes legendary – founder of a family, line of descent, clan or tribe, noble house, or ethnic group..
Ebenda''Ahnherr:''"Stammvater eines G ...
.
Origin and diversity
Speciation and domestication
The wild ancestor of cultivated adzuki bean is probably ''Vigna angularis'' var. ''nipponensis'',
which is distributed across Japan, Korea, China, Nepal and Bhutan.
Speciation
Speciation is the evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species. The biologist Orator F. Cook coined the term in 1906 for cladogenesis, the splitting of lineages, as opposed to anagenesis, phyletic evolution within ...
between ''Vigna angularis'' var. ''nipponensis'' and ''Vigna angularis'' var. ''angularis'' occurred around years ago.
Archaeologists estimate it was domesticated around 3000 BC.
However, adzuki beans (as well as soybeans) dating from 3000 BC to 2000 BC are indicated to still be largely within the wild size range. Enlarged seeds occurred during the later
Bronze Age or
Iron Age, periods with plough use.
of adzuki beans resulted in a trade-off between yield and seed size. Cultivated adzuki beans have fewer but longer pods, fewer but larger seeds, a shorter stature, and also a smaller overall seed yield than wild forms.
The exact place of domestication is not known;
multiple domestication origins in East Asia have been suggested.
Breeding
In Japan, the adzuki bean was one of the first crops subjected to scientific
plant breeding
Plant breeding is the science of changing the traits of plants in order to produce desired characteristics. It has been used to improve the quality of nutrition in products for humans and animals. The goals of plant breeding are to p