The cranberry bean is a variety of

common bean ''Phaseolus vulgaris'', the common bean,, is a herbaceous annual plant grown worldwide for its edible dry seeds or green bean, green, unripe pods. Its leaf is also occasionally used as a Leaf vegetable, vegetable and the straw as fodder. Its Pla ...

(''Phaseolus vulgaris'') first bred in

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

as the ''cargamanto''. It is also known as the Borlotti bean, Roman bean, romano bean (not to be confused with the Italian flat bean, a

green bean Green beans are young, unripe fruits of various cultivars of the common bean ('' Phaseolus vulgaris''), although immature or young pods of the runner bean ('' Phaseolus coccineus''), yardlong bean ( ''Vigna unguiculata'' subsp. ''sesquipedali ...

also called "romano bean"), saluggia bean, gadhra bean or rosecoco bean. The bean is a medium to large tan or hazelnut-colored bean splashed or streaked with red, magenta or black. Saluggia beans are regional, a borlotti bean named after

Saluggia Saluggia (''Salugia'' in Piedmontese) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Vercelli in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about southwest of Vercelli Vercelli (; ) is a city and ''comune'' of 46 ...

in northern

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

for marketing purposes and where they have been grown since the early 1900s.

Characteristics

The borlotti bean is a variety of the cranberry bean bred in Italy to have a thicker skin. It is used in Italian, Portuguese (Catarino bean), Turkish, and Greek cuisine. The cranberry bean looks similar to the

pinto bean The pinto bean () is a variety of Phaseolus vulgaris, common bean (''Phaseolus vulgaris''). In Spanish language, Spanish they are called . It is the most popular bean by crop production in Northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States, South ...

, but cranberry beans are larger and have big maroon, magenta, or black specks on a creamy white background, more like Great Northern beans. After cooking, however, the specks vanish and the beans take on a more even, darker color. A new cranberry bean variety, 'Crimson', is light tan speckled with maroon. It is resistant to

viruses A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are found in almo ...

and has a high yield. Crimson cranberrybeans

Cultivars

References

Phaseolus {{Phaseoleae-stub